Oh, Ebbie, I do feel a bit strange joking about a serious matter. I am afraid that I think pets should be left behind in evacuations. I know I would feel badly having had to leave Tamar behind, or any of many other pets (friends, really), but the logistics of evacuations are such that there is just no room and pets help create confusion and other types of concerns that cloud the issues that arise in panic/desperate situations.

On those occasions when we search a house for people, we will take a pet with us if we encounter one. But if we then encounter a person, the pet gets left behind. No one will re-enter just to save a pet.

I have a great love for animals and I would never treat one with cruelty. As a child my pet dog was poisoned by a family that lived just around the corner. In the next two years I broke every single window in that house with a slingshot--including the picture window and the designed windows in the front door of their place. I also had a dog that growled at my daughter when she was crawling near the dog's food dish. I took the dog and my .22 and was going to the dump. A neighbour asked if she could take the dog to be a companion for her father. I gave her the dog. If she had not been there at that moment, the dog would have stayed at the dump. However, it is a no brainer as far as I am concerned. People come before pets.

That said, I think that your initial post is great. No creature deserves to be deserted or left in misery. The work being done by people to rescue/reuntie/find homes for pets is admirable. I think that on occasion my sense of humour just carries me along. Please excuse me for that.