Priorities – gone to the dogs

When the first ghosted whispers floated on the air, hissing at the possibility of a new “flu” … it got my attention in a “hmm … that doesn’t sound good” sort of way.

Sure, it was a world away (last January), but in this day and age, the world is a smaller place. A mere marble.

Within a few weeks, it became clear this novel coronavirus had the potential to be a big-time bad actor. And it was spreading so fast …

The need to find ways to protect ourselves from infection became obvious, although our means to do so were limited. “High risk” groups were identified and, no surprise, I’m right smack in the middle of one. “Hunker down” was a new term to me in early March. By April, it was a fact of life.

When you are on a fixed income, there’s only so much you can do to prepare for a pandemic. What a helpless feeling – all we could really do was plan to stay at home for an extended period of time and hope for the best.

Which brings me to this question: How many of you ever gave serious thought to the possibility of needing to prepare for a world-wide pandemic? If you did; what was on your list of priorities? How did your list end up comparing to the reality?

Think waaaay back to the “early days” of the Corid-19 pandemic. I know, right? It sure seems like WAY more than just 6-8 weeks ago. At some point though, it hit most people that either they might get sick and the whole family could need to isolate at home for weeks – OR they might need or choose to self-isolate at home for their own safety and health.

In any case; once the reality of the situation hit – folks started preparing in whatever way they felt appropriate.

Stocking the pantry with staples and comfort food seemed appropriate to me, although between limited space and limited finances, I didn’t make much of a dent at the store.

I have to wonder (as have many others) what thought process was behind the world-wide toilet paper panic. TP? Really?

But, again … I’m mostly just curious. How did your real-life priorities match up with your “This is what I would need to do first?” list?

I checked back through my records and figured out MY personal priorities. The very first “stocking up” action I took? I went to http://www.Amazon.com and doubled my regular dog food order. 😂

Hey … my 13-year-old Abby needs her Senior Wellness kibble and I wouldn’t want the dachshunds to have to change to a different dog chow due to a shortage.

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I usually buy cat chow in a fairly large bags anyway, but I admit I went ahead and picked up one more bag, just in case.

Even then, it seems I waited a few days too long before it occurred to me that there could be a run on kitty litter! Seriously, folks? Is that the feline equivalent of a TP shortage?

It would be almost funny, except that our 15-year-old cat, Damascus, has serious allergies to the fragrances regularly added to most kitty litter brands. We FINALLY cleared up years of vet visits and painful, oozing sores when we switched to Arm & Hammer “fragrance-free” kitty litter. I’d really like old Dama to live out the rest of her life healthy and “fragrance-free” … so the hunt continues!