Luggage packed – check. Gas tank full – check. Snacks for the road trip – check. Designated kitty rescuer – check.
Usually getting ready for a trip entails packing your luggage, putting your mail on hold, and other mundane tasks. But ever since the wildfire last summer, there is one more role or task that must be completed before leaving. Finding someone to be the designated pet rescuer should a wildfire break out.
My neighbor just left for an overnight in Winter Park. But as she was leaving, she dashed off an email to me — could I be the designated person to rescue her cats and take them if a fire would break out? It seems crazy that for one single night you would need to think about that.
But my friend, Susan, found out the hard way that one single night is all it takes. Last year when the Cold Springs Wildfire broke out, she had gone on an overnight trip to the mountains outside Colorado Springs to go birding with some friends.
Since we moved here to Nederland, Susan and I have looked out for each other’s cats when we got out of town, but usually that’s for more extended trips, not for a single night. Like so many cat owners, usually for one night, we’ve just left some food, water, and clean litter boxes.
The afternoon we evacuated our house, I thought of Susan and called her hastily on her cell phone in case she wasn’t home. She didn’t get the message until late that night, and there was nothing any of us could do, since the sheriff’s deputies blocked access to the neighborhood.
Even the next day, though Susan tried valiantly, the sheriff’s deputies blocking the road wouldn’t let her up to rescue her kitties. Finally, after waiting all day, and desperate pleas, she rescued them from the house.
The standard rule if you have pets is to leave a note on your front door during wildfire season stating what kind of pets and how many you have. Our little note card says “2 dogs, 2 cats inside”. This is to alert both firefighters and animal control in case of a fire.
Animal control does what they can to help rescue animals when it is safe for them to do so. Sometimes, there isn’t anything even they can do. During last year’s fire, a frantic home owner near the east end of Ridge Road called for them to help rescue their yaks. Yes, I said yaks. I can only imagine how difficult they would be to load up in a trailer during an approaching wildfire. If it had been me, I would have opened the gate of the paddock and let them go free.
By the time, animal control received the call, it was too late. The fire had breached Ridge Road and they did not have a safe route to get to the property.
After that experience, several of us in the neighborhood who own pets created our own support network and “designate” someone to get our cats and/or dogs in the event of a wildfire. It’s just one more added pre-trip task, but provides a great deal of peace of mind, knowing they will be taken care of even in the worst case scenario.
Fortunately for us, we take our dogs to a wonderful couple in Rollinsville, who have their own evacuation plan to get all the dogs they are taking care of into their vehicles and safely out.
It’s stressful enough to go through wildfire season and a possible evacuation. But the thought of losing our beloved pets is more than I could bear. Do you have a designated pet rescuer?
