Having adopted a pet recently, I am looking to update my prep to include the furry friend. I feel like I have a good handle on how to prepare for the most common scenarios such as medical emergencies and lost pets, and for the least common scenarios as such bug out during a massive disaster. But then I'm noticing there are some "in between" scenarios that I am not sure how to assess.

For example, some people are concerned about car accidents with a pet in the car or becoming otherwise incapacitated with a pet somewhere (either in the car or at home). One source advocates having some sort of info tube with the pet's info & pictures so responders to the scene can search for the dog should it get loose from the crash site. There are services that sell a "I have a dog at home" card so whoever goes through your wallet will find it and alert the service to help take care of your dog. I've also seen signs that go on the door ("in case of emergency, save my dog located in this or that spot, contact this or that person"). All these assume that whoever sees these items will respond appropriately.

What can we expect from paramedics, firemen, police, etc. who show up to accident scenes or house fires? I have no doubt these are all well-intentioned people, but will the paramedic do a thorough search of the inner compartments of your wallet to find the "I have a dog at home" card and then act on it? I feel like they must follow certain rules (e.g., look for health-related & basic ID info only).

Microchipping is an essential first step. All strays around here are routinely scanned....

A bit of info I found out -- just because a pet is microchipped, it doesn't mean that the information it needs to get home is associated with the chip. The chip only gives a number when you scan it. The pet owner needs to register the number to associate it with contact information. There are many people who have microchipped their pet and never bothered to register. In that case the chip is totally useless.

Also, there is very little security with chip registration. If someone has your pet's ID number, that person can register it and claim your pet as their own. I'm surprised by the lack of security in this system.

Finally, make sure you have an ISO-compliant microchip. In some countries they cannot read non-ISO-compliant chips.

I have a dog. My family knows about the dog, there's a sign for firefighters to save the dog in case of fire. That sort of covers the "if I'm not there to help" plan. I also keep an extra 35 lbs bag of dog food in the basement, when that one gets used, I replace it, so I always have extra dog food on hand. The dog is micro-chipped. In the car she also wears a collar. I keep basic pet first aid stuff (vet wrap mostly) on hand. That's about all I do. The real issue could be if we had to evacuate where we would likely not be allowed to take the dog into a shelter, so I have a few ideas of where we'd go depending on the circumstances / lead time.

At the risk of sounding like a heartless monster, I would like to say that having a pet maybe counterproductive to prepping; unless the pet (dog) is adding something useful like alerting to burglars ..etc.

It is not that I hate animals or birds, but I see them as an additional responsibility in times when your energy is stretched to its limits caring for yourself and family.

The emotional part is understandable, a nice cute pet can add to someone's emotional wellbeing in times of distress, but that may vary a lot case to case. There are many people who will dump a pet in a disaster.

A few years ago, one of my sons developed a passion for birds (canary , parakeet, ..etc. ) and he put them in the upper floor of the house. As much as I was uncomfortable having them in the house, I was very much worried about their wellbeing. And true enough, one day I visited the balcony where the cages were and was horrified to see that none of the cages had a drop of water. I rushed to fill all the water containers for them and issued new decree in the house : No more than two birds (he got to choose which two to keep) AND putting at least TWO water containers per cage, AND those birds be brought down with us where we can see them more often. I didn't like the last point but , well... no choice.

Many folks have very profound relationships with their pets and mutual survivability is very important Prepping for a pet is not all that difficult.