Preparing for Fire Season - 2017
updated May 27, 2017
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Fire season in the Desert Southwest is frightening.
With 32 Dogs, 11 cats and a small number of farmed animals in residence, the reality of a wild fire is terrifying.
Right now we at CCR are updating our evacuation plans and figuring out what we have and what we still will need...
There have already been three fires, two quite major, within our general region...not close enough to have put us at risk...BUT CLOSE ENOUGH TO SMELL THE SMOKE!
Both fires have forced evacuations of people and animals.
All the dogs' safety is our primary concern!
Moving large numbers of animals takes serious planning.
We have a large travel trailer which has always been a part of the evacuation plan. Until the past week, however, half of the trailer had been used for storing the donated dog and cat food we receive.
Thankfully we just received a grant from the Don Nierling Memorial Foundation specifically to purchase an air-conditioned cargo container. It arrived a few days ago and Jeff and I have been building shelving and moving food from the travel trailer to its new home.
This has provided needed space in the travel trailer for kennels and carriers should we have to leave quickly. We also have a second cargo trailer for additional supplies including several days worth of animal food, pee-pads, towels and cleaning supplies.
But we do not have enough kennels to safely move all the dog and cats.
The number of animals has grown over the past years. Although we always have had enough kennel/carriers for transporting even a larger than normal number of animals to the veterinarian, we simply do not have enough for evacuation.
We need a minimum of $1500. to obtain needed supplies and repairs top the horse trailer
TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!
Please help us obtain the additional kennels and crates we need.
In addition to what we currently have on hand, we need to purchase a few more 42 and 48" kennels and another 30" kennels for the cats and smaller dogs.
We will be purchasing more water bowls to mount in each kennel.
Additionally we need to purchase disposable bowls for food,water jugs to have during the move, more paper towel and cleaning supplies.
We are preparing a stock of duplicate daily medications.
We are stocking the trailer with towels for the bottom of the kennels.
We will replenish the two propane tanks for the trailer.
We will purchase new tires for our old horse trailer and minor repairs such as greasing the bearings
We also will be adding windows to the smaller cargo trailer to move some more animals with airflow available.
Of course we hope none of this will be needed
...but with all of these lives depending on us, we MUST be ready.
If the worst were to occur, we hope that there is enough pre-evacuation time to move the animals in stages as has occurred in the two most recent nearby events.
It would certainly make an evacuation of this magnitude easier and most importantly, less stressful for the animals.