I just flew home from BarkWorld and boy, are my arms tired. No, really, everything is tired. It was a great weekend I promise to post about, but for now let’s just say that I zipped out under the farthest bands of Hurricane Sandy, came home to a house half packed for movers, and just kind of realized tomorrow I’m leaving my house of the last 8 years. I am myself a bit of a disaster.
But in the big scheme of things, much more dramatic events, real disasters, are taking place. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone in the path of Sandy, and I hope and wish and double hope one more time everyone who might even possibly be affected has a pet disaster response plan in place.
For everyone else who is watching and crossing fingers for friends and family with a desire to help on the brain, I’d like to point you to a new project I am so proud to be a part of: The Blogger Disaster Response Network, a joint project with World Vets and Blog Paws Be the Change for Pets. The idea is simple: if there is a disaster to which the World Vets organization needs to respond, such as the tsunami in Japan or the flood in Thailand, having a grassroots social media group ready to help get the world out in a timely manner is invaluable.
Click here for everything you need to know about the Blogger Disaster Response Network!
We are asking anyone who wants to help spread the word to sign up to receive notifications of future World Vets disaster response efforts. I do not know at this moment if World Vets will be doing any response to Sandy, but if we do, the Disaster Response team will be among the first to know. As we learned after Japan, time is always of the essence in these situations.
All the information about how to sign up is right over here and we are even working on a nifty blog badge to show you support disaster response for our animal friends.
If disaster strikes, you get notified and you can do whatever you would like with the information to help get the word out- share on Facebook, post on your blog, or choose not to do anything. There’s no obligation to participate.
The official signup form is here.
Please sign up and share! I know from personal experience the power you all have to make a difference in these frightening situations. Thank you all for everything you do to help animals!
You’ll be happy to know all pets are allowed in evacuation centers in NYC. Taxi’s are REQUIRED to allow pets and before they shut down, all mass transit accepted all pets.
FYI – less known fact. You will more than likely be separated from your pet in the evacuation center and most centers will require them to be crated in another area.
So is the lesson here own a small, collapsible crate?
It was great to see you this week – so glad you made it home safe! Where are you moving? The emergency network sounds like a fantastic idea and we will be signing up! Good luck with the move.