Making contingency arrangements for your pets

I was reading a day or so ago about the arrangements that have been made for the Queen’s dogs after her death.

The importance of making plans for your pets crystallised for me when I was caught up in the terror attack in Stockholm on a Friday afternoon in April 2017. As I sat in the basement of the building, all I could think of was ‘no one will miss me until at least Tuesday, when I don’t appear for work for the second day’. I realised that my cats will have run out of both food and water by then, and no one had my spare keys.

One of the first things I did after I got home and calmed down a bit was order a card to put in my wallet.

I then drew up a will, and included my wishes for my cats. My best friend in Sweden promised she would adopt them. She knows how much I love them. I am also married now, to a man who probably loves our cats more than I do, and I know that they will want for nothing if anything happens to me.

There are so many pets surrendered to shelters when their people die. Family members cannot always take them in. These animals often pine terribly.

One of my acquaintances has several really wild traumatised cats who are quite old. She has arranged to have them euthanised if anything happens to her. I understand this totally because they are not able to be rehomed without causing them great trauma.

So if you haven’t done so already, think about contingency plans for your pets in case anything happens to you. Make sure the details are written down somewhere