In case of fire

At 6 am this morning I was in a deep sleep dreaming and Ronja and Victor were right by my side. I woke up from the fire alarm alerting me, that there was a fire in the downstairs apartment!

Get the cats to safety!

My deafies woke up from me darting out of bed. I figured it was most likely a false alarm, but didn't want to take any chances. Then, as I tried to put on a t-shirt as pants, I thought of how to get Ronja and Victor safely out of the house.

As I ran downstairs I could hear my neighbour calmly talk to the alarm operator. It turned out my neighbour was making pancakes and the smoke set the fire alarm off.

Always have your cat carrier ready

The fire scenario is one I have been afraid of ever since we adopted Victor. He is the first indoor cat I've ever had who couldn't just run out of a cat door in case of a fire. Also cause he is deaf, he might notice too late or he would hide and be more difficult to find as he doesn't respond to calling.

I have two cat carriers ready in my bedroom, so if I'm home I have a chance to get them both out safely. Of course in a panic situation it could be proven tricky to get any cat into one of these. But deaf cats don't stress from the fire alarm, so I got that going for me.

 

Get the sticker

After we got Ronja in 2015 I learned about these stickers, that let strangers (like fire fighters) know that pets live in this house. It says "live animals inside - help us in case of an emergency". So naturally we got one of those for our front door, in case of an emergency, where neither we or out neighbours are home. I'm sure you can find something like this in your country or you can have one made.

What I have learned from this, is that next time I'll simply jump in my rope. It's always in the same spot, so I don't waste time trying to find clothes. Hopefully my neighbour won't burn the pancakes next time...

Do you have a plan on how to get your pets out safely in case of an emergency?

Here's some tips for cat owners in case of fire

Stay safe!