January 2008 Newsletter - United Burmese Cat Fanciers

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Lessons Learned From The Grand Prix Fire I knew we were in trouble as soon as I pulled onto our street late Friday afternoon. At the end of a nearby cul-de-sac two county firefighters stood looking out over Cucamonga Canyon at what the news people were now calling the Grand Prix Fire. Clouds the color of crankcase oil boiled in the foothills beyond the wash, far thicker than they had been that morning when I left for work. “We’re making a structure protection and evacuation plan,” one of them said. That’s all I needed to hear. As soon as I hit our driveway I began loading essential items into my car— I unplugged Rose’s and my own computer towers and set them in the back floorboard, and in 20 minutes all our important documents, including insurance policies and pedigrees of generations of Burmese cats, were safely ready for evacuation. The evacuation order came late next morning. We were prepared, because two years before, right after 9/11, we had written our own home evacuation plan. Rose had cat carriers stationed in each room where our cats lived. It was a simple matter to round them up in the carriers when the time came (including Vinny, the garage cat). Our evacuation was orderly and uneventful. Carrying what worldly possessions we could, we caravanned our car and SUV down the freeway to the home of a friend who, in an act of uncommon kindness, took us all in. We set the cats up in big tents in the same social groupings they had been accustomed to at our house. Everyone got along fine, and it turned out to be a big feline slumber party. Rose and I were again blessed to find our home still standing when we got back into our neighborhood two days later. Natural and sometimes manmade disasters can happen to any of us, no matter where we live. A brief reflection on the last 15 years turns up memories of Hurricanes Hugo and Katrina, the Los Angeles Riots, floods in Texas, and wildfires in several western states. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 put us all on notice, if we needed it, that we are responsible for our own safety and that of our family. Fear and stress during times like these make thoughtful planning difficult, if not impossible. When the adrenaline is flowing and time is precious, a simple and well-rehearsed evacuation plan can be lifesaving. The time for thinking and planning is well in advance of the fire, or flood, or riot. The time for action is when it all comes down. Here is the plan Rose and I had in place when the Grand Prix Fire threatened our home in October 2003. All we had By Tim Wheeler to do was read it and execute the steps. We made minor revisions after the fire, learning from the experience: 1. Get all cats out free in the house. Put them in carriers (they might hide if we don’t get them first). Use carriers, show cages, four tents (in box on wheels in garage), and Nylabone transport cage. They are all in downstairs storage room. Then get the caged cats and their litters. Put them all in the cars. 2. Downstairs, empty one big green plastic box with Christmas decorations into a plastic garbage bag and take the empty box upstairs. 3. Upstairs in the kitchen, fill one green box with canned and dry foods, can openers, bottles of ibuprofen and Tylenol, the two drawers with cat meds, plastic utensils, and the block of kitchen knives. Also get the cat food and dishes in the kitchen cabinets by trash can, and the cat food in the laundry room. Get the 5-gallon emergency kit in the laundry room. 4. Go into office. Get both computer CPUs. In file cabinet get documents, archives of insured goods, and stuff in file cabinets that looks important. 5. Upstairs, load all bottles of water into the two vehicles. 6. While upstairs, get some garbage bags and go to the back of the house. Get all Rx meds for Tim and Rose, Tim’s travel kit, Rose’s travel bag, blankets from the linen closet, clean cat bedding from guest room closet, toilet paper and paper towels. Get both cell phones and chargers, keys, cash, and Rose’s purse. 7. Downstairs, fill the other green plastic box where tents are now stored with cat food, paper and plastic cat food dishes, and garbage bags. Look in the garage cat cabinet by the cages. Get the can opener there and rubber gloves, too. 8. Downstairs, grab a 40-lb. bag of cat litter and the box of cardboard litter boxes in the storage room (back corner to your right as you enter). Page 20 UBCF January 2008
9. Upstairs, make final sweep. Close all windows, check that all appliances are off, turn furnace/air conditioning off, turn off all outside lights, set alarm, EXIT TO GARAGE. Turn off gas valve (wrench is there). Agree on route before driving away. We learned that having essential items where we could quickly find them was a great help. One addition we have made to our plan is a “bug-out box,” a plastic box we got at Target that we filled with emergency items—flashlights, camp lanterns, toilet paper, a can opener, and other basic items. You can find ideas for stocking emergency items at your county fire department’s web site. For example, the web site of the San Bernardino County, California Fire Department (our county), www.sbcfire.org, contains sections titled “Developing a Family Evacuation Plan” and “Family Disaster Plan Guide.” Use these resources, and rely on the expertise of the dedicated professionals who fight fires for a living. Always maintain awareness. Don’t ignore warning signs when events are headed your way. Some of our neighbors went blithely about their weekend routines as Websites - Continued from page 19 Burmese interactive breeding table www.burmees.nl/ Ger Versluis - Click on “Mating Chart” the fire approached, either denying or ignoring what was going on around them. One family left for a day trip to the beach the night before the mandatory evacuation order was given. Finally, don’t forget to run through at least one practice drill, following your plan. You don’t have to actually load everything up and drive away. But walking through the steps, looking to see where the storage boxes are in the garage, and performing all the other details puts the sequence into your “muscle memory.” It’s the same reason that soldiers and firefighters run drills regularly—they fall back on their training in the face of a terrible and imminent threat. They don’t have to hesitate and think things through, because in a very real sense they have been there before in training. Rose and I didn’t get around to practicing our evac plan before the fire, but we should have. To summarize, make a plan, involve everybody in the family, practice the plan, and be aware of what is happening in your environment. Taking these steps will give you the feeling of security that comes with being ready when disaster strikes. Feline Genetics www.igs.net/~kiddbatt/DOCS pages/genetics1.htm www.kolumbus.fi/sarakontu/link/catlinks.html Gitalaya’s Burmese web-ring www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/8454/burmring.html Dr. Susan Little’s Website www.catvet.homestead.com/index.html Feline Cranial-Facial Abnormality Site faculty.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/faculty/lalyons/Sites/burmese.htm Leslie Lyons, U. C. Davis Feline Husbandry Site www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/ccah/felinehusbandry.cfm Neils C. Pederson, U. C. Davis UBCF January 2008 Page 21
Page 1 and 2: United Burmese Cat Fanciers UBCF Ne
Page 3 and 4: No one knows how much time will pas
Page 5 and 6: UBCF History By RoseAnn Wheeler UBC
Page 7 and 8: ter, since we preferred the look. I
Page 9 and 10: in that timeframe the ACFA standard
Page 11 and 12: Rock-Land cattery and begged her fo
Page 13 and 14: What recommendations are most impor
Page 15 and 16: Canadian Cat Association (CCA) Cana
Page 17 and 18: Rescuing Burmese Through a variety
Page 19: Breeding Pedigreed Cats Carolyn M.
Page 23 and 24: UBCF Membership Region 2 Central We

January 2008 Newsletter - United Burmese Cat Fanciers

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