Over the 4th of July weekend our family suffered an incomprehensible tragedy when our beautiful sister was the pedestrian victim of a hit and run on Ft. Lauderdale beach which left her on life support in the ICU with multiple broken bones and a traumatic brain injury. In that same moment, her two dogs were left in the hotel room where she was supposed to be celebrating the long weekend with friends with no idea what had happened to their Mom.
Our whole world had changed in a moment. These were things that happened to other families, and when we heard about them we paused for a moment, thought about how bad we felt for that family and then went on.
We were now “that family” and as vitals updates, procedural consents, and surgical reports over ran our lives in caring for Lynn, her dogs Gary and Morrie were left without their Mom to care for them.
Rescues are inundated with requests from family members to take dogs that belonged to their loved ones due to aging, passing away, inability to care for them after surgery, and various reasons. As heart breaking as it is for dogs to lose their people, having a family member take the time to search out a rescue gives these dogs a better shot than most as equally frequently, there is not a family member willing to step up to help the dogs of a loved one and then rescues receive blasts like these from shelters.
Gary and Morrie are lucky in that their Aunt is a crazy dog lady who doesn’t bat an eye to add two medically needy dogs to her home for an extended and perhaps permanent basis, but not every dog is that lucky.
Our family has learned many things from the legal, medical, and patient advocacy side through our journey that we want to pay forward for other families who may unfortunately find themselves facing a similar situation as ours, but for me, I also have an extra soft spot for sharing how to plan for your dogs now that I have lived it from both the rescue and personal sides.
Here are some steps to take to make sure your dogs don’t end up like those in the shelter blast above:
Have The Uncomfortable Convo
Nobody wants to roll up on friends and family and say “hey, BTW, if something happened to me, would you take my dogs?” but you need to. You may assume that a BFF or family member would step in, but would they? You don’t know until you ask. Don’t leave this to chance.
Provide The Info To That Person
Start a Google Doc, an Evernote notebook, any sort of shared document, and write out a quick list of everything that person would need to know if they assumed care of your dogs at a moment’s notice. Who is their vet, what do they eat, what is their schedule, do they take any meds and what are those dosages and frequency and share access with that that person so that they have it. Set a reminder in your calendar to check it 2x annually to make sure nothing has changed.
Luckily for us, Lynn travels frequently for work so she had everything written down so that we knew Gary’s insulin dosage was 4 units 2x daily, but without that, it would have been some scrambling to overcome doggie HIPAA to get that info.
Notify Your Vet
Call your vet and ask to leave a note on your records for whoever the magical person is that becomes your emergency contact and should they need to step in, they have your approval to work with that person to provide care for your dog.
Have Supplies Ready
As part of any good emergency plan, you should have some basic supplies assembled if you need to evacuate quickly with your dogs. That emergency kit should also be stocked with anything anyone needed to care for your dogs on a moment’s notice. Is your dog a diabetic? Throw in a bag of needles. Do they happen to be an aggressive marker and will rapidly wear out their welcome due to marking the bejesus out of everything including their Aunts curtains, bed skirt, couch, and dining room table? Throw in a spare belly band or two, or a package or two of diapers.
Don’t Make Them Spend Their Money To Help Your Dogs
Dogs are not cheap and it isn’t fair to expect someone to assume the expense of caring for your dogs should something happen to you. A Pet Trust or a Pet Protection Agreement can provide funding for day to day and/or medical care and make sure your wishes for your dogs are honored. (*Disclaimer – The last thing I am is an Attorney and am not qualified to provide legal advice. I am, however, a lover of internet rabbit holes for educational purposes!)
Both Gary and Morrie are beside me on the couch with my current DRSF Fosters as I write this and are safe here for as long as they need to be. Both of them have paid visits to Pet Medical Center of Boca since they have been here with big thanks to Dr. Hughes and the team there for their support in helping us through.
May you or your dogs never need any of the info above and may you and your families be safe and healthy.
