The Four P’s of Pet Safety
Most American homes have a pet, and many Americans consider pets a family member. It’s worth a couple of minutes to consider how we keep our pets reasonably safe without becoming obsessive about safety.
Pets, such as dogs, cats, and ferrets get in trouble because they are curious. Most of us don’t see the world as our pets do, especially our exotic pets such as birds or reptiles. Also, most pets are unsupervised while we’re at work.
None of us can keep our pets 100% safe. Accidents can and do happen, but I think about preventing the most common accidents in my home by thinking about “The Four P’s” — perimeter, people, poison, and paraphernalia.
Perimeter is your pet’s safe boundary, your pet’s habitat, his home range. If your pet is a cat and the perimeter is the house, then you need to have a strategy for opening and closing doors without the cat slipping outside. That’s perimeter. Outside the perimeter, the cat’s not safe.
If you are a two-pet household and your second pet is a gerbil, the gerbil is never safe outside his gerbil enclosure. For the gerbil, you need a strategy for changing his bedding and water that does not allow him to escape into the cat’s territory. In the cat’s territory, the gerbil is not safe. For my home, it’s parrots and dogs. Same thing. I keep a demilitarized zone between the birds and the dogs at all times.
People refers to small children or visitors who don’t understand your rules for keeping pets safe. For example, safety for a kitten means that you must keep the toilet lids down. Accidental drowning is the leading cause of kitten death. Visitors to your home may not know this.
Another example involves small children. Children may not be able to change the gerbil’s bedding without having the gerbil escape into a zone that’s not safe for him. A solution that keeps the children involved and the gerbil safe is for the adult to move the gerbil to a temporary “holding box” while the children make the gerbil’s cage a pristine gerbil heaven. The adult then moves the gerbil back into his regular habitat.
Poison includes anything that pets can eat or lick that will make them ill. Avocado, chocolate, alcohol, and caffeine are poisonous to dogs and cats. I wouldn’t feed those things to a pet tarantula either.
One common poisoning that surprised me was cats and motor oil. Cats allowed into a garage walk through oil and grease. As part of their daily cleaning, cats lick the oil and grease off their paws, and become ill.
Paraphernalia is the best noun beginning with “p” I could think of for our belongings such as yarn (a leading cause of kittens’ emergency surgery or death), electrical cords or computer ( a cause of puppy and kitten injury from chewing), and window blind cords that pose a hazard when they become wrapped around a pet’s neck and the pet struggles to free itself. Craft or hobby projects and children’s toys are sources of things with small parts that are intriguing and can be swallowed by pets.
Think about your yard or your car, if your pet is allowed in those areas, as boundaries of your pet’s range and apply the Four P’s.
- Perimeter: How will you assure that when you open the door your pet won’t bolt into traffic?
- People: Does grandma know the rule about holding Spot’s collar before opening the car door?
- Poison: Is the chocolate bar Junior dropped still on the floor of the back seat where the puppy can eat it?
- Paraphernalia: Is the set of hand tied-flies that you bought for your brother’s birthday on your back seat where your ferret can swallow them?
If an accident does happen, restrain your pet first. Use pressure to stop any bleeding. Call your veterinarian, and say “This is an emergency.” Then ask for advice.
Know your veterinarian’s hours. For “after hours” care, many communities have emergency or after hours clinics, such as Dove Lewis Animal Hospital in my home town of Portland, Oregon.
The ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center is a national resource that provides telephone advice for people whose pets have ingested something that has made them ill. The service, at (888) 426-4435, is not free, but it could save your pet’s life if your veterinarian or another emergency service is not immediately available.
- Program your cell phone with the numbers of your veterinarian, your emergency after-hours clinic, and the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center.
- Talk to your family about the Four P’s. Decide together what the safety rules are.
