I thought I’d pop in on this thread as I had a situation happen last year to me and my buns. It’s not so much natural disaster but man-made.
The guy down the hall from us blew up his condo by disconnecting the gas stove from the gas line and letting his place fill with gas until it sparked and blew up. It was the scariest moment of my life and it made me realize JUST how much you have to be prepared. I heard the bang, the fire alarm went off, and I went into the hall to see what was happening and my whole condo filled with smoke and someone was running down the hall yelling “the fire is coming! there’s a big fire!”
It was the most traumatic experience of my life. My boyfriend and I had a good system for getting the rabbits out if something happened but we had never anticipated that one of us would be gone. He was gone on a business trip. I fumbled with the carriers (they are the plastic ones you put together) and I just couldn’t get them together in time. My whole condo was filled with smoke and there was no way for me to tell how close the fire was since all you could see was pitch black smoke. So I had to make the decision to leave the buns behind and find help. You NEVER ever want to be in that situation. It’s heart breaking and scary. But it’s either you get yourself out and find help or die trying to save your pets. I made the choice to run once and I’ll never forgive myself for leaving them behind. I bawled for a good month afterwards every time I looked at them. I found a fireman who helped me go back up and find them. We got back inside my place when they were able to get the fire contained and all (five at the time) buns were scared and terrified in a corner of the room. Thank god for them being so low to the ground – every one is pretty sure that’s why they survived.
Moral of the story – you HAVE to be prepared.
1. Be prepared for being the only one home.
2. Have carriers READY to go because fumbling to put them together in such a stressful situation is nearly impossible. My rescue actually gave me the best tip ever. They are all fosters (it’s a foster-only rescue) and they all have large numbers of rabbits so they keep pillow cases nearby so they can throw them all into the pillowcases to get them outside in case of an emergency. –
3. Have food for at least 24 hours prepared (including an extra bag of hay in the car or next to the carrier during emergencies). I made the travel bag with enough pellets for two days and a larger sized bag of the Oxbow is stuck inside the bag and that bag goes into the carrier. So I can take the bag out of the carrier but have it handy so I don’t forget to grab it.
4. Vet phone numbers stuck in your “emergency bag”. I was fumbling and shaking trying to find numbers for any of our local vets since the rabbits had been exposed to smoke for so long. Your mind literally goes blank in these times so it’s MUCH easier and MUCH more efficient to have the numbers handy.
5. Have a set destination to take your animals. I literally had NO where to take them as my boyfriend was out of town and for some reason in my brain during all the stress I never thought to call his grandma (his dad was away also and my family is not from around here). Anyways, I basically have this local pet store that watched them in a back room for me for a few hours until my boyfriend could fly back. As everything is unfolding, the last thing you want to have to worry about is finding a safe place for your animals (it was in the winter – March).
Off the top of my head I can’t think of anything else… I have some litter & an extra litter box ready to go in the emergency bag also, just in case we can’t get to a store. The last thing we were thinking of was store stuff for the bunnies. But anyways, we lost pretty much everything rabbit-related in our condo. Cages, toys, boys, water bottles. Everything soaks up the smoke and can be toxic if you’re not careful. I would definitely put money aside (maybe into the emergency bag) just in case you are unable to get money elsewhere and to be completely prepared. With five rabbits and no where to put them, we had to buy one x-pen ($80) for the bonded quartet and then Nora was still new and not bonded but thank goodness someone from our local rescue brought us a small x-pen for her also. We bought them a few toys and then veggies that night also.
Not thinking, we gave them the pellets and hay I had grabbed when the firefighter went back inside the condo with me. But then I realized they couldn’t really eat them with all the toxic smoke that had been lingering for so long, so I threw them all away. Even a few toys in the emergency bag would probably be helpful. It’s not things you think of, but we were displaced for two-three weeks, and we obviously couldn’t leave them with nothing to play with or do for that long so we HAD to get them a few toys and gave them some paper towel rolls.
Sorry for the long post – but thought it may give you all some ideas for your own emergency kits & plans!
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