Dogs and Hurricane Irene

Our Dog Plato Did Well in Hurricane Irene

We were all worried about what Hurricane Irene would do here in Connecticut.  We fared well at our house.  Our emergency preparations were in place, including adequate food and water for all of our family, including Plato.  Plato and I took a long walk before the winds and rain started.  Plato started to get edgy as the evening wore on and was very nervous by 2am when he woke me up during the thunder and lightening phase of the storm.

By morning we were awaiting the arrival of Hurricane Irene and it was raining buckets.  Plato was panting and didn't eat.  He went out for a brief bathroom break but had no interest in taking a walk.  We were glued to the news on TV until the Irene actually went over and we lost power and we switched over to our battery powered/crank emergency radio. It wasn't comforting to learn that the power company predicted it would be up to a week before power was restored in some areas.  We kept in touch with family and friends who were also likely to be hit by the storm or who were concerned about those of us who were in the storm's path.  The temperature was cool enough to be comfortable so losing AC wasn't a problem at all. We had lanterns, craft supplies and board games so we were fine but concerned that the power would remain off for too long.  Our little portable generator was enough to run our big freezer and we loaded our refridgerator with ice from the freezer and didn't open it much.  Plato was edgy but OK.  No dinner or snacks for him.  He was too nervous.  Irene passed by and our household did well with just minimal issues.  We slowed down on our texting so we wouldn't run our cell phone batteries down after we lost power.  We have a plug in phone so we could always use the land line.  It was comforting to exchange texts to find out that everyone was safe, even those who had downed trees, flooding and power outages.  We were lucky and our power was restored in about 12 hours.

It took Plato awhile to settle down after the storm passed.  He seemed tentative when we went out for a short walk.  There were some downed trees and power lines so we stayed clear of those areas and make it a very brief outing.  Plato started eating and looking happy again the next day!