It's Not Just Me Anymore

It's been a long time since I been able to get on the computer. I have a new brother who came home in December. Markus left to run an errand and a little later Adele took me out into the front yard. It was so excited to see Markus' car pull into the driveway. I'm always excited to see him come home and I started running toward the car. This time Adele gently held me back and I was a little confused. Then Markus got out of the car WITH ANOTHER DOG. Seriously. Out of the blue he brings another dog home with no warning, no discussion, not even a subtle hint like putting out another food dish. Just go out and presto! I have a brother. It's not like I was moping around asking to have someone else around to compete with for attention. I have to admit though, he is a handsome canine.

Natura Pet Recall!

You know, one day you're eating the food you've been eating for what seems like forever and them BAM, you're eating something new without notice. I overhead Adele saying that my food had been recalled and we had to get something else. She called over the Mudbay and she seemed please with their recommendations. They drove off and left us to wait. Oh ya, I haven't mentioned the "us" part, but I'll get to that later. They came home with a bunch of samples of new foods to try. The next few days are going to be exciting. They kept talking about the Natura Pet food recall and what needed to be done to get the GHB's restocked and ready to go. I do like it when we get to play with the disaster kits! If you are currently using any Natura Pet brands go replace that food right away just to be safe. Good Luck.

DZ
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Are 5 days of medication really enough?

During one of those random moments when Adele was preparing to order more medications for me a question was posed. She started talking with Markus about whether five days of medication in the disaster bags was a enough. After all, how soon after a disaster would pharmacies start dispensing medications for pets? 

And a few tricks in the 5-Day bags...

So they worked hard on creating my 5-Day bags that night, and a little more now and then, here and there, when they thought about it. In the process they did a couple of things I didn't expect. Now being a Chihuahua I'm not quite sure what I expected. They came up with a way to store nitrile gloves so they wouldn't get damaged. And they came up with a simple container for a first aid kit for me.


Here's how they stored the gloves. They rolled four gloves individually and put them in a plastic Q-Tip travel case. It's easy enough to get a pair of gloves out and keeps them from getting damaged.













 They also took one of those $1 first aid kits and replaced the contents with more useful stuff. It has tweezers, gauze pads, roller gauze, disinfectant wipes, butterfly closures, some antibiotic ointment, and some adhesive bandages. It fits just right too.

DZ
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Finally, organized kits!

So Markus & Adele were grating on each other about how to organize my disaster kits. They couldn't agree on how much food, water, medications, or practically anything to put in the kits.  They practiced now and then, bringing their bags into the house and talking through a disaster. It just wasn't clicking and I was afraid they might just give up. Then one day...

They used to say 3 days of supplies, but now....

A long time ago someone told folks to have three days of emergency supplies. In the western states where earthquakes were common this seemed like a good idea to some. Then around the 2005 Hurricane Katrina catastrophe in New Orleans the recommended amount of supplies increased. So how many days should everyone have? The numbers seem to be a little different from one source to the next. Needless to say, being better prepared is being better prepared. Have a plan and have supplies necessary for your plan. BUT, don't forget that your pets need to be in that plan too. It's just not ok to have 10 days of food and water for yourself and 2 days for your pets. How much do you think Markus and Adele put aside for me? What is their plan?

GHB! What the heck is a GHB for a dog?

What's a GHB? It's a Get Home Bag. For the human-folk they like to fill these with the stuff they might need to get home in a disaster. It has less than they would need to survive the disaster but enough to make sure they can get to their disaster supplies. Since I'm not able to carry my own bag of stuff, Markus and Adele have made my Walk Bag my GHB. It's the bare minimum that I always have when I'm away from home. And don't forget, each of their cars carries one of my disaster bags. Does your pet need a their own GHB? Do you even have one?