Hurricane Safety for you and your pets.

#1
Never ever leave your pet behind when evacuating for ANY reason be it a hurricane, a fire, or a man made disaster, even of you think you will be back soon, Hurricane Katrina has taught many, that is a fatal mistake (although most people have already forgotten that and still did the same thing during Hurricane Rita) and at LEAST 600,000 pets suffered, drowned and died of starvation and dehydration when there simply weren't enough rescue groups available. As hard as it might be to put a small or large animal in the car with you, PLEASE just figure out a way and put them on your lap if you have to, they depend on you to protect them and not chain them up to suffer and die. It should never and will never have to be a choice between your pet(s) and your kids, you figure out a way to get EVERYONE to safety, including your pet who is your responsibility and also a member of your family.

#2
Please adopt a pet from your local shelter instead of buying one from a pet store. There are many great pets waiting for a home but 80% end up being put to sleep because so many people end up buying pets that come from puppy mills where the animals are tortured, forced to bread 24/7. Google.com: "Puppy Mills" and you will understand. Help stop puppy mills by putting them out of business and help stop thousands of animals from being put to sleep every day and adopt a beautiful friend from your local shelter today. Most shelters have pure breeds as well, but I prefer mutts myself. Just 1 adoption by you will make 100% difference in the life of that pet. Please also consider adopting a mature pet over a puppy or kitten, mature pets are usually more at risk of being put to sleep and in most cases a mature pet will already be house broken which is better for you. And remember once you have taken the responsibility of taking a pet, be kind to it forever, give it a better life then it previously had, in most cases it has been abused by a previous owner. If you can't take the responsibility, don't get one as it will hurt the pet in the long run when you decide you don't want to keep it.

#3
NEVER leave your pet in a place you would not leave a baby in, such as a car when the temperature outside is hot or cold since a car will heat up or cool down really fast to an extreme temperature usually worse then it is outside and leaving a window cracked open wont help, its is a myth- even if you think you may only be gone for a few minutes, those few minutes make a huge difference on the inside. As well do not leave your pet chained outside for more then an hour in same types of temperatures. They have fur, so imagine yourself in that kind of temperature and how you would feel being chained outside for hours in it, and then imagine wearing a fur coat during this time- as well you should remember that asphalt gets hot, so put a bare palm to the asphalt when it gets hot before walking your pet, if it burns your palm, it will burn their paw pads when they are walking on it so try to acclimate them to pet booties if at all possible when conditions are really bad.