I have my plan for what I will do in the event of a disaster in regards to my dogs…all 25 of them!  I run a kennel, so ensuring they are well-cared for in an emergency situation is part of keeping my business healthy.  But even when I just had one dog, I made sure she was covered in my plan.  I read too much about what happened to people’s pets when Hurricane Katrina hit.  Many people left feeling they could not take their animals with them when they evacuated to local shelters.  They put out extra food and water thinking they would be back in a couple of days.  Many animals died of thirst or went hungry because their owners couldn’t get back in a reasonable time frame.

So, I was thinking about my plan for my dogs the other day and I realized that, although my animals are all identifiable through microchipping, I don’t have their numbers or the organizations they are monitored by in my Go Kit.  If something were to happen and I lost them, I would not be able to check to see if they’d been turned in because I didn’t have their numbers.  Stupid, huh?  It’s a simple thing, but it just got by me.

This weekend I’ll be making a list to put in my Go Kit that has each dog’s name, chip number and the phone number of the organization holds the record.  I want to be able to be reunited with my pets if something happens.  The other thing I’ll be doing is trying to think about what other gaps there are in my plan.  I’m thinking I may need to do a practice run to see what else shakes out.