# Michigan storms



## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

I know there's at least a couple other Michiganders here besides myself, and if anyone else is in the path of the snowstorm going on tonight, I hope you and your hedgies stay safe. <3 I know there's been a lot of power outages so far, and I'm sure more to come. The tree in our backyard has its branches down to the ground from the snow, it's so heavy. >< Our power's already flickered once, so I'm in a half-panic about Lily. I've already gotten blankets out to wrap around her cage, counted my handwarmers (10), and been trying to think of people whose houses I might be able to take her to if the power stays out...Especially since I have to work a 9-hour shift tomorrow. :? Also planning to set my cell phone alarm for every 2 hours to make sure the power hasn't gone out...Definitely not going to sleep much tonight. On the bright side...My new space heater does turn back on when the power comes back on, just like Nancy said it would, so it'll be on as soon as power comes back, if it does go out. Argh...Fingers crossed for an uneventful night!

(The silly part is that the storm itself isn't even that nasty...It's just that it's dropping around 6 inches of snow on us suddenly, and it's very wet heavy snow that breaks tree branches and power lines. *sigh*)


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## hedgieluv (Oct 29, 2011)

Oh Lillysmommy,
Good luck tonight. I have been worried about something like that since Persephone came home!


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## Christemo (Oct 5, 2011)

When the power went out here in the freak Halloween snow storm, after two hours, I took her outside (COVERED in blankets and snuggle bags) and turned on my car, and waited in my car with the heat on until the power got turned back on. She was snuggled safely in my lap, and I got past a lot of levels of Angry Birds.... :|


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## Hissy-Fit-Hazel (Jul 15, 2011)

Power going off in the night and not noticing is a big worry. What is nice about having a battery back up system to put hedgies stuff into is that it sounds an alarm if the power goes out.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

We made it through the night with power still safely on! I'm a bit nervous about going to work, but we're not supposed to get any more snow, and my Dad has a snow day (he's a teacher), so he'll be home for the day.


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## Christemo (Oct 5, 2011)

Yay! I'm glad for you guys.
Now, how much snow warrants a snow day in Michigan? Eeek!


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## GoldenEyes (Nov 4, 2011)

What do you do exactly if the power goes out? We get quite a bit of snow here (I'm surprised we only had one snow fall so far though) and the power goes out often, sometimes for more then a day. What do you do in that situation? Is there any way to have like a backup heat source? I guess like a hand warmer but that wouldnt heat up the whole cage...


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

GoldenEyes said:


> What do you do exactly if the power goes out? We get quite a bit of snow here (I'm surprised we only had one snow fall so far though) and the power goes out often, sometimes for more then a day. What do you do in that situation? Is there any way to have like a backup heat source? I guess like a hand warmer but that wouldnt heat up the whole cage...


That's why I was panicking, I have no clue. :? We've never had the power go out before since I got Lily, so I haven't had to deal with it yet. This website might have some equipment that would help - http://cozywinters.com/pets/ That's where I got Lily's heating pad. I'm looking on it now to see what kind of heating things they have for pets.

Edit: I found this, this might be something good for putting under a Sterilite bin - http://cozywinters.com/shop/bench-warmer.html I know you need the air warm, not just the floor, but if you covered the bin, that might help hold the heat from the warmer in, or you could tape handwarmers to the sides to help heat the bin that way as well.

Edit again!: And right after that I found this! http://cozywinters.com/shop/lh-adhesive-warmers.html


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## hanhan27 (May 12, 2011)

Gahh, I feel your pain. I'm in central/eastern WI and we get some horrendous storms. And on top of that, our power companies are not reliable and are SO SLOW. Last winter, our power went out around 10p during a storm, and even though the storm only lasted about 10 hours, our power didn't come back on for 2 days. I expect to have to call in to work to stay home with Milly at least once or twice this winter. >_< 

To be honest, I thought about asking my boss if I could bring Milly to work with me. I do in-home care for a disabled woman, and half of my shifts are 3rd shift sleeping shifts (yes, I get paid to sleep, lol) so I could easily take Milly with me in her cat carrier. I have a 40 minute drive to work, so there's a good chance that the power there would be on when our power at home goes out. Living in WI & MI when you're a hedgie owner can be a huge pain in the butt...

Do you have the link for the heating pad you got? I looked all over at Wal-Mart but they were all the automatic shut off kind. :roll:


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## Nancy (Aug 22, 2008)

hanhan, that would be great if you could take Milly to work with you and I see no reason why there should be an issue. Unless the woman has a compromised immune system and even then, as long as she wasn't in direct contact with Milly there would be no concern. 


For everyone, remember that those foil blankets wrapped around the top and 3 sides of the cage or carrier will reflect any heat back into the cage. Also, anyone who is at all handy could wrap the cage/carrier with Styrofoam which will hold the heat in even better.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Hanhan - This is the heating pad - http://cozywinters.com/shop/kh-1060.html I love it! It heats up only when there's weight on it and only to a specific temperature so that it doesn't get too hot and cause burns. Since I have it under Lily's cage, under her igloo, it stays on with the weight of the cage on it. I've felt the floor of her cage over where it is and it's nice and warm without being too hot - perfect!

Thanks for the added tips, Nancy, I'll have to look at the store for a foil blanket to keep on hand as well!


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## lehaley (Jun 25, 2011)

Glad to hear you didn't have any power outages, Lilysmommy. 

Power outages are honestly one of my biggest concerns with Felix. I spend most of my time at school in central IL and last winter we had a 5-6 hour outage during the snowpocalypse we had. My apartment retained heat fairly well, but definitely wouldn't have been warm enough for Felix. I think I'm more concerned with the time I'll be spending further north at my dad's and at my boyfriend's place in Madison, WI over my winter break. The NW suburbs of Chicago had some nasty outages all summer just due to rain and I remember having them a lot overnight when I was younger in the winter. I think I'm just worried that the power will go out in the middle of the night and I'll sleep right through it and leave Felix cold for too long. :? 

I read on another post somewhere that the water in your hot water heater usually stays hot for hours after an outage. Is this true? Aside from hand warmers (which I have stockpiled), part of my keep Felix warm plan involves hot water bottles. I use them a lot for migraine headaches, so I have several and they stay warm for a long time. I was also wondering, what do people put the hand warmers in? I'm worried that Felix might somehow manage to rip them open and get at the icky chemicals inside.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

I sewed together a few fleece pockets for handwarmers, with some velcro to hold them together. I can only find one right now (I think the black hole that eats socks in the dryer ate them :roll: ), but they work really well! Very easy too, just cut the fleece to the right size, sew together three sides, turn inside out and then sew some velcro on the opening.


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## hanhan27 (May 12, 2011)

Nancy said:


> hanhan, that would be great if you could take Milly to work with you and I see no reason why there should be an issue. Unless the woman has a compromised immune system and even then, as long as she wasn't in direct contact with Milly there would be no concern.


That's what I was thinking, Nancy. The woman is in good health - she is mentally handicapped, but mostly my company does in-home care for her for supervisory purposes and to remind her about personal hygiene and keeping her apartment clean. She loves animals (she actually volunteers at an animal shelter) and she keeps her apartment almost uncomfortably warm, so I think it would work... I just need to run it by my boss. It would make life SO much easier! I know I would feel guilty for having to put Milly in a cat carrier all night with no wheel, but a restless hog is better than... well, what would happen if she went without heat for 12 hours.

Thanks for the link, Kelsey. I think I might invest in one. Do you have a C&C for Lily? If so, is it like a 2-story with the bottom level for storage? I'm trying to figure out how I would set the heating pad up. I have a C&C, with the top set of cubes for Milly and the bottom set of cubes for storage. They are zip-tied together. I wonder if I could squeeze it in between the bottom of the cage part and the top of the storage part? Hmmm...


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Yup, Lily's got a C&C, but it's only one level. I used to have it two-level with a storage area on the bottom level, but didn't like it much. You might be able to squeeze it in between...Or could you maybe put it between the cubes and the coroplast, then run the cord through one of the squares in the cube? Though if you do that, you may want to check how warm the floor of the cage over it feels, having it a bit closer to the top. It shouldn't get uncomfortably warm, but just in case!


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## hanhan27 (May 12, 2011)

I have the coroplast zip tied to the cubes because it's not exactly cut to the right size.. :\ This might be more difficult than I thought lol. I think doing it that way would work a lot better, though, so I will try that before trying to wedge the mat between the 2 levels.


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