While you’re making potato salad and counting to be sure that you have enough hot dogs for that Independence Day cookout, animal shelters around the country are preparing for the busiest day of the year for lost animals. Cats and dogs, afraid of the noise of fireworks, panic and flee. Remember, cat hearing is much better than the human sense of hearing. That’s why you can never open a treat jar without heir hearing it. But it also means that fireworks several miles away that don’t sound so loud to you can be really loud and scary to your cat.

Most cats will try to hide at home from the noise, but some cats can become so afraid that they do things out of character, like breaking through screens on windows or running through open doors in their panic to try to get away from the terrifying noises. That’s dangerous for everyone.

What can you to do be ready for this weekend’s fireworks?

• Use calming scents in your house like the Comfort Zone Feliway Diffuser to help your cat feel like it’s a safe space. The scent of these can take hours to distribute through the room, so be sure to plug them in ahead of time for best effect.
•  Make sure your cat is indoors before dusk to be sure he isn’t caught outside when the fireworks begin.
• At nightfall, close the windows and curtains to help muffle the sounds from outdoors.
• Turn on soothing music inside to help drown out the sound of the fireworks.
• Make sure exterior doors are completely shut both to minimize noise and to prevent your cat from slipping out. Be sure that anyone who has to enter or exit after dark is aware that they should shouldn’t let four-legged friends follow them outside during the fireworks display.
• Know where your cat likes to hide, and don’t try to block your cat from her favorite spot under the bed or in the closet. If she doesn’t want to come out during the fireworks, let her stay in her hiding spot where she feels more secure.

• Make sure that your cat has on identification in case your cat bolts out of the house and becomes disoriented. It’s best to have a microchip as well as a breakaway collar with name and phone number.

With just a little bit of care and planning, the fourth of July can be a less scary experience for everyone!

References and Further Reading

RSPCA, Fireworks
ASPCA, Why Fireworks and Pets Don’t Mix

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In our house, Newton uses the stove knobs as a stepping stone to the kitchen counter when he is looking for between-meal snacks. He turned on on the gas burner this way one day. Luckily, someone was standing at the counter to turn it off, but we realized we needed stronger fire safety measures at home.

June 15 is National Pet Fire Safety Day to help remind us about hazards like Newton’s paws. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) says that animals accidentally set over 500 house fires every year in the country, most frequently related to the burners on the stove. The NFPA says that the stove or cooktop is the number one piece of equipment involved with pets starting household fires. With over 500,000 pets are impacted by fire annually, this is a good day to stop and assess whether there is anything else you can do for the safety of your cat and your family from fire.

The American Kennel Society has issued a useful list of pet fire safety suggestions, many of them applying to cats, too:

Prevent your Cat from Starting Fires

Remove or cover stove knobs

Child safety covers prevent cats like Newton from accidentally turning on your gas stove burners. If you don’t have covers for your knobs, you can remove them when they aren’t in use.

Extinguish open flames

Don’t leave your cat unattended around any open flames, including gas stovetops, candles, or even your fireplace.

Use flameless candles

Flameless candles are battery-powered and light a bulb instead of having an open flame. Flameless candles allow you to not worry about whether a cat’s tail might wave over the top of a candle or if they might knock it over.

Don’t use glass bowls on wood decks

A glass water bowl on a wooden deck can work like a magnifying glass to heat up and even ignite the wooden deck beneath it. Use a stainless steel or ceramic bowl on wooden decks to instead.

Keep Your Cat Safe

Identify pets

Keep breakaway collars with identification on cats and also microchip them. Don’t forget to keep microchip registry information up to date. In case of emergency, if your cat gets out, they will be able to get back to you if someone can identify them.

Know where your cat hides

A list of the likely hiding places will make it easier for firefighters to retrieve a cat from your home. Consider blocking access to areas that a human can’t reach so that your cat can be evacuated in an emergency.

Consider monitored smoke detectors

If you aren’t home, there’s no one to hear the smoke detector and get pets to safety. Systems that notify a monitoring company allow emergency responders to be notified when you aren’t there to call them.

Use a pet alert window sign

A decal or static cling in a prominent front window tells firefighters to look for your family members who can’t speak for themselves. For extra visibility, add a second decal at your electric or gas meter, since first responders will secure those in case of fire. Keep numbers on the decal(s) up to date as your family grows. Window clings are available free from the ASPCA.

Exchange information with a trusted neighbor

Make sure your neighbors know how many pets you have so that they can talk to firefighters, if necessary. You can even exchange keys with a neighbor and agree to help evacuate each other’s pets, as long as it is safe to do so.

A little planning can help make your four-footed family members safe in case of fire emergencies.

References:

National Fire Protection Association, Animal-Caused House Fires
American Kennel Club, National Pet Fire Safety Day Prevention Tips to Keep Pets from Starting Home Fires

Photo credits:

Arlana Rose Taylor-Stanley on Flickr
Valley Independent Sentinel on Flickr

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When you’re in the dairy aisle at the grocery store, do you check the expiration date on milk before you put it in your cart? The majority of people do.

When you shop for cat food, do you check the expiration date on the food before you buy it? Most people don’t.

Recently, one of our local big box pet supply stores received pallets of food past the best-by date printed on the packaging. The store employees, in a hurry to stock many shelves, didn’t check the dates and put the food on the shelves. When it was brought to their attention, they pulled the products they were told about, but they weren’t able to look through every package in the store to see if more mistakes had been made. There were still more bags of out-of-date food on their shelves.

Thankfully, there’s no scary ending to this story with a sick cat or dog because our sharp-eyed friend caught the out-of-date food, both times. But it brought up a really important issue: pet food goes from the manufacturer to the warehouse and then to the store. The date printed on packages of food is usually a year from the date of manufacture for dry food. Canned food, preserved with heat sterilization and vacuum preservation in an oxygen-free environment, has a longer shelf life than dry food, usually about two years from manufacture date. If a bag or can sits too long at either the warehouse or store, it could be past the printed sell-by date.

It’s easy to be sure that no one else missed pulling old product from the shelves. Just take a look at the date on your bags or cans when you shop and help keep your cats safe and happy.

References and further reading:

Wellness, Nutrition and Canned Dog Food
Pet Education, Shelf Life of Pet Food
Pet food aisle photo courtesy giletti on flickr creative commons

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