By Norma MiltonSpecial to the Aroostook Republican
Over 15,000 pets have been found by rescue groups since Hurricane Katrina. Only 3,000 have been reunited with their owners. There are still thousands who were not rescued and some who were sent to dog pounds for quick disposal. People did not prepare identification for their household pets before the hurricane. A hard lesson learned.
Contributed Photo
Hemma, a beautiful approx. 4 or 5 year old female Himalayan, was a stray cat found wandering the streets of a nearby town. She has beauiful marking, is very, very shy and likes to hide a lot. Loud noises scare her. She will not scatch or bite, but tries to run and hide whenever she becomes scared again. She will need a patient family of adults who will let her regain her trust in humans at her own pace. She is a very clean cat, grooms herself well and loves to have you pat her head. Unfortunately, even though she is apparently a purebred, she had no identification so the owner cannot be located. Hemma is available for adoption to the right family.
We want our pets to be safe. We would be frantic with worry if we were separated from them.
We do all the responsible things our vets tell us is necessary. But in an emergency, can we be sure they will be safe, well cared for, and reunited with our family. Disaster planning for our pets is as necessary as fire drills are in public schools.
Our first step is identification. For dogs, a collar with his license tag, rabies tag and a name identifying his name, owner’s name, telephone and address. For cats, you need to also consider the safety of a break-away collar.
Cats will climb and can become entangled trapping or hanging the animal.
Break-away collars will disconnect should that happen. I have seen cats who have strayed and gotten into serious injury or death situations because the collar did not have a break-away feature.
Tattooing and microchip are becoming popular. Both require the expense of having a professional involved. Microchip is not widely used yet. In time, I think the microchip will be the most popular. Right now, we can only hope the microchip reader would be available to the rescue worker involved.
We can safely identify our pets with low-cost features to allow rescue and reuniting to our family. These features are: (1) Have a durable, safe collar with a quality ID tag. (2) Have several photos of your pet taken at different angles to show color patterns and specific features. (3) Have all medical records showing vaccinations, special diet, chronic illnesses (heart or diabetic) or allergies. And (4) have a five-day supply of food and water kept aside for the pet. If you need to leave in a hurry and quick rescue is uncertain, you will have provided rescuers with supplies needed for those first few days. Do not cap the water jugs. (A Katrina person did so only to find that her pet had severely dehydrated trying to chew off the plastic cap). Do not leave unopened canned pet food (even if he will not eat anything else-who is going to use the can opener for him). If the pet is hungry, he will eat the dry food. A dish of canned food would be OK if you will only be separated overnight.
Keep the original of your pet’s records with you.
Make two extra copies with one copy of everything in a see-through plastic bag with your pet’s name and description on it.
Do not tie or cage your pet if you are leaving the area. He is then a total captive and will lack the resource to try to help himself (Your dog tied in your back yard cannot defend himself against bigger dogs coming into the yard).
You can pin the record bag to the wall in the room that is housing the animal. The rescue workers will take your pet, the pet’s records, the supply of food and notify the humane shelter or local authority of your pet’s rescue and whereabouts for when you call. Keep the last set of records to use as needed.
Keep in mind, there are still 12,000 rescued pets from Katrina who have not been reunited with their families.
No one can estimate how many non-rescued pets are still roaming the streets or facing death sentences in municipal pounds.
Caribou Pet Rescue is located at 6 Richards Rd in Caribou. Mailing address is PO Box 488, Caribou, ME 04736. Neuter and Spay – It’s the ONLY Way. Please continue to donate your returnable bottles and cans to Caribou Pet Rescue. This week 18 Bennett Drive Redemption had $56.00 waiting for us again. This is a huge help and we are grateful.
On Saturday, December 1 from 1-3, Santa Claus will be available for Pet Photos with Santa at the Caribou Lions Building by the Caribou Fire Station. CPR will also have a table of Sheila McKenna’s World Famous Fudge and Lynn Collins’ Awesome homemade pies for sale. Call 498-3800 for information or check out our pets at www.cariboupetrescue.petfinder.com
