Yes, the news is worse and worse almost hour by hour. Thank God for GLP being first with the news and then the in-depth details our great researchers get to.

Please do NOT set your furkin outside to fend for themselves. They cannot. Bad, bad things will happen to them. That is not the best alternative.

If I have to leave, mine go with me. They bark - this is good and bad and I have thought about it, definitely. Good to warn me of anybody near. Bad if I wanted us to stay silent. I don't know the end result, but there is no possibility I would leave them behind alive. That would be cruel in the extreme and I could not do it. I was a PAWS volunteer for seven years and I know too much about pets left to fend for themselves. I'd put them down before I'd do that, and I would beg anybody not to leave theirs.

I can't imagine surviving in the Everglades and you are very impressive for even considering it! Would you not worry that the things you are willing to eat might eat you first? Is there ANY safe place there? From what I have seen via video, no! Even if you found or made a building, slithery things can get in. Everything about it gives me the willies! WOW!

Where I would go - there could be wolves, coyotes, deer, elk, maybe bears. The only snakes here are garter snakes, which are entirely harmless, but they scare me to pieces anyway! Having barking dogs would be helpful with bears and other four-legged creatures, scaring them away.

Dogs are a great alarm system, especially mine. I have one twenty-pounder that does not sleep all the day long. She is constantly working, listening, watching out the window, checking where I am and usually being where I am. She is a tremendous alarm system. The other one, elderly and eight pounds, barks often enough, herself.

Their barking may attract people - including hungry people. I don't know the answer to that, except that a number of them will not survive to regret their decision. After that, I don't know. Don't know what it takes to make gangs or starving people to leave something alone. Bodies strewn about might be helpful, but they will attract insects and promote disease.

Leaving them was never a consideration - never entered my mind. I would never do that to them. Food and water for them are a natural part of my planning, both for sheltering in and bugging out. You'll laugh - I live in tsunami territory, and have a tsunami trunk in the car. There is probably more for them in the trunk than for me! LOL Leashes, coats, food, collapsable bowls, chewies to chase away boredom.

Cats are harder, no question. Many do not appreciate travel. They complain loudly and are annoying while traveling. They require food, water, potty boxes, and perhaps cannot last the trip without all the above. I drove from NC to WA with two dogs and a cat. The cat traveled in a cage during the day. When we parked for the night, I let her out of the cage to access food, water, potty box, and while the dogs and I slept in the back of our vehicle, she roamed around and did as she pleased. She understood in the morning it was back into her cage. That was used to prevent her getting out of the vehicle when I did, which cats always manage to do.

We all have so many questions, at least internally, about what we will do, how we will manage, what decisions we will have to make, will we survive? Will we want to survive? How will we die, if that is to happen? We are here for these reasons - to talk about them, think about them, learn about them from others, have resources to help us make decisions.

I believe as time goes on people here will feel more and more free to state what their deeper concerns are, so that we can ideally help them with ideas and solutions.

The easiest way, in my view, to contact admin or a mod is to find a thread in which they have posted. Scrump posts in most threads, and is so very kind and helpful! Lady Jane as well. Just click under their name on Private Message, and there you go.