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The UK seems to have been battered by the elements recently with floods up and down the country, sinkholes appearing out of nowhere, lightning like we’ve never seen before, and booming thunder that shakes us right to the very core. Just last night a lot of us experienced one of the most spectacular lightning displays ever seen.
If you get a tad startled from time to time with the booming thunder and flashing lights, just imagine how startled your pets are going to be. You shouting at the kids is enough to have your cat running for the hills, and the dog hates it when the kids start crying. Pets get scared during storms and it is important to make sure you have kept your furry little friends nice, safe, and soothed while the excitement rages.
First and foremost, your pets need to have safety and shade away from the battering winds and pouring rain. You wouldn’t like it if you got soaked and then had to spend the night in a cold, wet bed. Don’t expect your pets to put up with it. Your pets can and will get sick.
If you have rabbits, bring them inside. If you have a dog, make sure he is not left in the garden. If you’re at work when the storm hits, look up a local Cheshire Pet Sitting company such as Animal Sitting and ask them if they can let your pets in, or take them to safety. Do you have a cat flap that your feline friend can easily dart through?
No one likes to see their pampered pooch or their beloved kitty cowering in the corner, so try to keep things as natural inside the house as possible. If they see you guys panicking, or hear fear in your voices, they’ll react to it. They’ll get scared too. Have the TV on or the radio playing, and have some fresh food and water down for them should they fancy it. Make sure that their bed is easily accessible – they may want to crawl in and hide. A blanket or two of yours won’t go amiss either – your smell will help to comfort them, and it’ll give them something to hide their poor little faces in. Dogs love this idea!
Play time is important during this time, and although they may not want to play around with you at first, having toys to hand is a great idea and can help to work as a nice distraction. A few treats will help things along nicely too. Our dogs love it when we play with them during thunderstorms now, and we’ve found that once they had gotten their head around the idea, it worked well to soothe them.
If your pet wants to hide, let them hide. If it just so happens to be under your bed, let them stay there. They will come out when they are good and ready and the storm has passed. Trying to coax them out from small spaces and hidden crevices is going to be difficult and in fact, you’re probably agitating the situation further. You should let them hide away if that’s how they’d like to deal with the flashing lights and loud rumblings.
Some animals such as dogs have been shown to have an increased awareness of something called barometric pressure. Essentially, something in the air changes and dogs are more sensitive to it. This is why pets play up so much right in the lead up to a big storm. They can sense the storm is coming and you probably don’t even have a clue yet. They might try and tell you that the storm is coming, especially if they are a protective breed, but to you it’ll just look like they are having a temper tantrum.
Pets can react in all sorts of ways when thunderstorms happen. The dog might pee on the carpet or the cat might throw up on your bed. Rabbits will run around like crazy and make too much noise. They might bolt away in fear or hide in places you’d rather they wouldn’t. Just remember, as frustrating as it is for you right now to try and calm them, put yourself in their shoes and remember how small they are and how scared they must feel.
Give them a break and keep your pets safe in a thunderstorm!
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