Furry Friday: Pets and the Power Outage
First stop was to a restaurant around the corner to try to recharge my computer, blackberry and wireless hotspot, all drained from the trip, but there wasn’t enough power in the outlets there to charge everything. Temps were near 100 degrees. That night it wasn’t too bad, though a bit on the miserable side — even though I tried taking a cold shower, the humidity it added made the house worse afterward. The next day, I tried a stop at Wal-Mart to root through the remnants of the flashlight aisle, and found a few. I found a couple tiny battery-powered fans, and one cooler left — but there wasn’t any ice to be found at any of the stores. I came back to get the puppacita from the increasingly sweltering apartment and hustled her over to the mall, where the guys at the AT&T store kindly agreed to charge some of my devices. We sat in the middle of the mall at a random outlet for an hour or two, enjoying the cool air as shoppers shared their outage experiences and came to visit with the puppacita. We stopped at a PetSmart to get single-serving pet food cans, or as close to it as we could, since any leftovers would spoil.
Poor Chi-Chi just wanted some sleep (and was probably cursing me for taking her away from 74-degree L.A. with its perfectly plush manicured grass). I’d easily smuggled her into the movies before, so now was as good a time as any. We went to see Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and she slept in my arms the whole time. Outside temps were easing a bit as the sun went down, but it was oppressive in the house by the time we got back.
I was most worried about the chinchilla. These furry Andes mountain critters can die if exposed to temps over 80 degrees, and by now the thermostat said 89 degrees. She’s the reason I keep the house at 69 degrees and keep her in a room with a ceiling fan in case the A/C. was out. Chinderella has a granite slab on which to sit and cool herself off, but I knew that wouldn’t be enough. I moved her cage into the darkened bathroom, the coolest room, and watched her carefully for signs of overheating. I tried to get the pets hotel at the PetSmart to take her in her travel cage, but they would only take cats and dogs. So last resort — I went to the first aid aisle at Wal-Mart and bought boxes of those instant ice packs that you pop for the cooling effect. I kept putting those in her cage, where she was sitting on the granite slab. It’s a miracle she made it through — if she had shown any symptoms of overheating other than cozying up to cool things, like reddened ears or laying on her side, next stop would have been the emergency exotics vet. But she’s quite the resilient type — after I was freaked out by articles saying that chinchillas were too sensitive to travel and could die during a move, she turned out to be the best cross-country traveler out of the bunch in the move to D.C. four years ago.
The next night was awful. The puppacita was determined to take her favorite place on the bed, but even with the windows open she started panting again. I was continuously taking her to the sink to pour cool water over her. Finally, we settled onto the floor, as close to the window as possible, for an uncomfortable night of tossing and turning. Awoken by the sun the next morning, I was dejectedly staring up at the ceiling, planning to take Chi-Chi and my laptop back to the mall to get some work done in center court, when the bedroom light came on with a pop-and-fizzle and the ceiling fan turned on — the pet-sitter must have left them on. It was over, but not for all in the D.C. area. I threw out all of the food in the fridge and freezer, and started working on the laundry from my trip. Puppacita just wanted to take a long nap. Her allergies were insane by this point from not being able to cover her sensitive skin with anything, due to the heat, when I took her outside.
Nearly a week after the power came back, my rat Red passed away. I don’t attribute it to the heat, as he was old and handled the outage quite well. But I’m glad he waited until after I returned to go.
Awwww, so sorry for your loss.
I can so identify with this article. We had a trip scheduled the day after the evacuations for the Colorado Springs fire. What to do with the kitties, who were already overheated in 100-degree heat (few people have AC here)? The smoke was too thick for anyone, man or beast, to stay, it was too hot, and the neighbors were all packing up and fleeing anyway. Took kitties up north to stay with the grandparents (at 4 a.m.), who aren’t cat people. But it worked out okay. Grandparents did a good job. It is terrible to see pets suffer. I was putting ice cubes in the water dishes.
Condolences on the loss of Red. Glad everyone else is fine. I’m lucky if the power goes out, I have a basement that stays around 55 all year. Keep my house set to 80 in the summer. Because I’m cheap.
How did the fish do?
The fish was happier, I think — it freezes out a tropical fish a bit with the temp I usually keep it in here!
Like pets much? Sorry to hear about ol’ Reddy Boy, as Wifey and I have lost a few Kitties in our time. Each loss leaves a ‘little hole’, that never quite heals.
A ChinChilla? How did you come up with that one? “You know, I’ve always wanted A ChinChilla…” [??]
Do they purr or squeak, or have an organic, endearing sound ?? Do they nuzzle, when it’s cold? Show their little furry bellies? C’mon, give it up. This is just too cute……
The lowdown on Chinderella is here:
http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2012/03/30/furry-friday-world-chinchilla-domination/
Many of us were raised “without” air conditioning..high humidity..how ever did we make it..in my younger years, my mother i lived in the st. thomas projects in new orleans…no fans either…brick buildings…wow…
sorry about your pets…and then again..how did our pets make it?…
Thanks all on Red. He was a good little guy.
You can get converters that allow you to charge all your portable stuff off your car. Simplist is an inverter to boost 12VDC (car) to 110AC (wall socket) and you can charge as normal. Then there are converters that change 12VDC to whatever your device needs (more expensive, but waste less power). RV outlets have many appliances that can operate off 12VDC, but you have never had a serious power outage there. Your choice on preparedness level you want.
You get a serious power outage with this CME (coronal mass ejection) headed our way:
http://modernsurvivalblog.com/space/2nd-solar-x-flare-in-a-week-hurtling-towards-earth/
I was going to ask how the rat fared but then I read he died. Sorry to hear about the poor guy. Love your stories about your critters. I’ll miss reading about your rat.
Mark Twain is reported to have said that the more he met people the more he liked his dog. This is very very true in this new debased American State where an ugly people is creating an ugly culture; animals are much more humane that the humanus americanus.
Sorry to hear of the death of your pet. My two dachshunds survived a july trip in the baggage compartment of the plane with no ill effects. The pilot himself told me he had given them water. They both had to travel in cages and were both very spoiled dogs. Many staff members on planes are animal lovers and check on them but you cannot depend on that.
However, after I got to Arizona, the air conditioning in my house broke and the two dogs came to my bedroom door, melodramatically panting and throwing themselves down on the cooler floor…..just to let me know they weren’t happy and before they went to sleep on my bed.
My current dog, also a dachshund, doesn’t like the heat and spends most of the time in front of a fan in my air-conditioned house.