Every year, we hear horror stories about people who are hurt by weather and other environmental disasters. In recent years, spring seems to come earlier. Being prepared in advance is more important than ever.

Regional Variety

The calamities can be anything from a tornado to an earthquake, a flash flood or blizzard. The injuries can be both physical and financial.

Once in a while news reports will also mention pets. Sometimes the story is a heart-rending rescue of a dog or cat, even a horse. These are great, but tragedy involves the stories we usually don’t hear about. Typical were reports that started filtering out after a hurricane devastated an area. Although most residents were able to remain or evacuate safely, and emergency personnel were able to assist nearly everyone else, there were few resources that could be spared for pets, even those with injuries. Veterinarians were largely impossible to reach and most were also recovering from the storm.

Plan for Problems

A fortunate few had planned ahead. Like those who boarded up windows, stored water, food and flashlights, they had realized a pet first aid kit would be invaluable in an emergency.

This may not be obvious, certainly not as clear a need as emergency water or a light source or battery-powered radio. But the special requirements of pets and pet first aid can be just as irreplaceable in an emergency. The simplest example is treating a cut on a dog or cat, where band-aids and other items designed for humans simply don’t work. Treating a blood feather on a bird or getting medicine down a cat can be just as tricky and require equally specialized preparation.

Obviously, we’re biased. We’ve manufactured pet first aid kits for more than 20 years. But we’ve also heard from pet lovers across the country who wish they had a first aid kit on hand during an emergency—or we’re glad they did. Regardless of where you get your kit, we urge you to be among the second group!