Tornado Season and Your Pet

I breed Yorkshire Terriers and Miniature Dachshunds and own 2 online pet boutiques. Dogs are my life in both of my businesses. But I also live in what is called "Tornado Alley". That is a difficult and possibly dangerous combination.

We are now in the Tornado Season around here and I dread this time every year. We are one of the lucky people who own a basement so at least we have a place to go to for shelter. A lot of people have to use community shelters that don't allow you to take your pet with you. I think that is very sad. I can imagine some of the problems that might occur with a large group of people and their pets but it would be so hard to have to leave to take shelter and know you have to leave your beloved pet at home.

My husband put a pet door in one of our basement windows. He then built a ramp that runs the length of the wall down into our basement. Our plan was that during a tornado warning all we would have to do is put the dogs in the pet door and they would run down into the basement and be safe. Sounds like a wonderful plan doesn't it.

Well we forgot to take a few things into consideration. First of all, we were putting together dogs that were not used to being with each other (not good). Not all the dogs would run down the ramp and have to be trained to get over their fear of it or be carried down the stairs. The excitement causes some dogs to have accidents (they are not trained to be in the house).

Now take into consideration that I am usually home alone when there is a tornado warning. You usually don't have a lot of time to take shelter after the warning. During the last two tornado warnings we had I spent quite a bit of time and effort getting all of our dogs down in our basement and settled. By the time I got the last dog into the basement I was exhaused, stressed and the warning was over and it was time to take them all back upstairs.

My husband worries that I will be so busy getting the dogs into the basement that I won't make sure that I am in the shelter when the tornado hits. He wants me to just leave the dogs and go to the basement with our house dogs. But how can I do that. I am not sure I could leave them to be hurt or die. Such a difficult decision. So far I have been lucky and we have all stayed safe without my having to make that difficult decision. Keep your fingers crossed that we continue to stay lucky.

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Author: Carol Goering
Dog Lover Boutique
Carlar's Cuties Dog Boutique
Carlar's Cuties Kennel