And by fit I'm not referring to bulging flexed muscles,or a Usain Bolt fast human. I'm referring to your survival fitness, the ability to carry on when the going gets tough. Have you worked on yours lately? Are you prepared?
In life its very easy to get complacent. Things that have great importance get slowly forgotten about over time. We chip away at life and before you know it something happens and gives you a jolly good wake up call.
The 2011 Christchurch Earthquakes are a good example of this. This was/is a profound event in New Zealand history, many people lost their lives, and countless others were changed in mere seconds.
185 people died on this day with 1500-2000 injuries. It was not something anyone was prepared for and this city is still learning to be itself all over again.
We were all encouraged nationwide to ensure we had enough emergency supplies in a "just in case" major event. And I'm sure like me, most of the country went out and got themselves a "be prepared" kit.
Five years have now passed since these quakes (and yes Christchurch is still rebuilding even today) over time my healthy little treasure trove of emergency rations has been dwindled away, I needed this and I used that and never bothered to replace it.
Well, mother nature gave us ALL a good shake up on Sunday the 12th of November in the form of a 7.8 magnitude quake about 60km outside of Kaikoura. This quake lasted for over a minute. And two souls lost their lives in it.
At two minutes past twelve, I sat in bed, hound dog still sleeping (nothing phases her!) debating what my next actions were going to be. Get up? Stay in bed? Get under bed? Wake Sapphire? Wait.. wheres her collar? oh S*$### I don't have a lead inside, drat! all her meds are scattered all through the kitchen....
Complacency had given me cause for pause, once the shaking subsided I got up ,answered a flurry of text messages, sent a flurry of text messages(guilty as charged there!) and then proceeded to fill a bag for Sapphire- yeah, I filled her one first. Shes a people tooo!
So let me ask you this: Are you prepared?. We humans prepare survival kits for ourselves, but what about your pet? I know mine has medical requirements meaning she HAS to have her medicine twice a day EVERY day, with no exceptions. What if you cant get to it? What if you only have a few days meds left? Do you have a spare stash?
We now have a kit for Sapphire here, everyone's will be different as each pet requires slightly different things. We've gone with the standard 72hr kit suggested by Civil Defence. This includes about 8L of water.
Sapphire's list goes something like this:
1) Medication- all of it, everything she currently takes is in it
2) Baby socks-and lots of them. I WILL carry her if I have to to stop her foot dragging on the concrete but these are quite important for her well being
3) First aid kit- because pets get injured too
4) Food- kibble, canned- whatever she eats, a hungry dog is not a happy dog
5) Spare collar and lead
6) Water and water bowl(I have one of those collapsible ones that takes up zero space)
7) Blankies and a towel or two
8) Plastic bags
9) Less important, a toy or two just to provide a little comfort and some long lasting treats
In times of natural disaster or disaster in general our pets are often an afterthought- well not in this house they aren't.
What else would YOU add to yours?
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