Mother Nature is Stalking Me!

What is it with me and natural disasters? I barely escape New Orleans after Katrina ravaged the place, and now Sedona is poised to light up like a tender box!

Granted, the fire is sticking mainly to the National Forest and has not breached or compromised any physical structures yet, but in my heart I hear the pleas of my wildlife friends who cannot possibly all be outrunning this blaze which lept from 300 acres (when Chris was evacuated from work in uptown today at 5:30) - to 1,000 acres now (around 11:00). The photos here are some photos courtesy of Arizona Republic Website (credited to JD Maddie and Janessa Hilliard).

So far only a few areas have been evacuated, but the blaze you can see from most of West Sedona where we live is a little un-nerving. This is a close up someone else took:

and below is Chris' horribly unfocused photo but gives a point of reference from where we live (the top of the shot is the blaze, the red light in the middle is the shopping center about 1/4 mile from our house):

It was a strange day indeed. Chris tells me he got a call at work from the owners of his shop. They were packing their home at about 1:30 PM watching the blaze and pillar of smoke just North of their neighborhood in Rim Shadows. They packed their valuables into the trucks and brought their two dogs and their cockatiel to the bakery. Chris says that at about 5:00 the police and forest services shut off the neighborhood where they lived and also began shutting down traffic through Oak Creek Canyon (between Sedona and Flagstaff - where Woody Fire made the news this week.) As Chris drove away from the bakery at 5:45 - the official fire sirens were going off to close the canyon and evacuate residence to Flag or Sedona.

With the planes and helicoptors all around, Chris and I were reminded of post Katrina New Orleans (although there were no Hum-Vees or camouflaged soldiers to speak of. )

So today we will discuss our "Recipe for (avoiding) Disaster!"

Every pet should prepare for evacuation - because these days between the hurricanes, floods, fires, earthquakes, politcal potentials and insanity of our world... we could take a lesson from those boy scouts who claim to "be prepared!"

This is our evacuation ready kit (which rotates periodically as things with expiration dates require.) We started this around the famous "Y2k"days, but have found on a couple occasions (like when Chris had to pick up in the middle of his life and scoot to New Orleans to help rescue pets like yours truly) that effort of "being prepared" made it easy to respond quickly to the needs of others.

Our basic Evacuation Recipe (all stored in a portable plastic bin):

a six pack of wet dog food cans (stewed beef - if you must know) and a can opener

a small bag of kibble (we like Beneful healthy weight these days)

3 gallons of fresh water and a ketadyne water filter

2 collapsable kennels (this # should be adapted to the number of dogs/cats in your home)

additional "people supplies" in our kit are:

a week's worth of camping food

toilet paper - in case housing is an issue and we must camp

a tent/sleeping bags

2 plastic plates, cups and cutlery for two

3 large trash bags and a clean sponge

a flashlight with batteries

3 ready to eat cans of chili, a box of saltines, and 3 bottles of Gatorade (electrolytes!)

An unopened pack of daily vitamins, shampoo, conditiner and soap

A Bath towel

Now this my seem "extreme" to some people, but have you been watching the news lately? It seems on any given day there is some population of our planet inconvenienced by an event. This is a way to be "ready to move into action" and help a hungry/stranded friend, neighbor or area pet who was not as prepared as you were.

Tonight we'll sleep pretty easy knowing that the firefighters are doing a great job "holding off" the spread of the "Brins Mesa" Fire. But should the need arise due to a shift in wind or fortune... this household is ready ro go with our "Recipe for (avoiding) Disaster."

One more though tonight. If you are a pet whose people "think ahead" - you should have them choose a person that you approve of to be a keyholder to your home. In the event that your person was unable to get home quickly, you could be assisted by that friend of your people to get into your kennel and rejoin your human companions at one of several pre-decided locations. We all learned from Katrina that sometimes our people can't get to us in time - and maybe planning your emergency alternatives will help reduce your stress and our dependency on rescue organizations in future emergencies!

Love ya'll like a good night's sleep from knowing you are prepared for the next day!

Love,

Miss Joy "Ain't-no-Disaster-Gonna-Bring-Me-Down" Beagle...