ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. — Peanut, Rufus and Leo spend most afternoons at the dog park in Port St. Lucie.
“He’s not scared of anything other than maybe a hurricane,” said St. Lucie County resident, Debbie Day.
Peanut's safety is top of mind this hurricane season.
“After we’ve got the house all shuttered up," Day said. "It's like now we need to make sure he’s safe and feels comfortable.”
That’s the sentiment shared amongst these pet owners.
“Rufus is like a little kid, a little baby,” Gerry Bakes said.
Bakes said Rufus gets along well with other dogs and is crate trained, in case they ever need to evacuate to a shelter.
“We’d have to sneak in some treats when nobody’s looking,” Bakes said.
Right now, St. Lucie County’s only pet-friendly shelter is located at Westwood High School in Fort Pierce. The county's public safety director, Ron Guerrero, feels confident that’s enough.
“We’ve been fortunate enough, where we’ve been able to manage the numbers,” he said.
Guerrero said the county is working with St. Lucie County Schools to identify an additional location that could be used as an alternate should the first shelter exceed capacity.
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“The more that they can do to help pet owners, because again they’re our babies,” Day said.
Maria Valencia, the animal safety division manager, said due to state health and safety regulations, pet owners won’t be allowed to shelter in the same room as their pet.
“The people are housed separately from pets; the pets stay in crates during their stay at the shelter," Valencia said. "During that stay, there are designated times that you can go to the pet side to take care of your animal.”
This will be Debbie and Peanut's first hurricane season together and she has a big concern.
“We’re trying to think of for hurricane season coming up what can we do if he can’t get outside to go to the bathroom,” she said.
She shared an idea with WPTV hoping it could help other pet owners.
“I was thinking maybe just getting some sod from Home Depot for a couple days," Day said. "If we know there’s hurricane coming, we can put it in the garage and maybe he’ll do that.”
