Don’t tread on me
I’m sorry I haven’t done a lot of picture posts or Barbie posts lately. Those are pretty time consuming, as I think I have mentioned before, and if there is one thing that has been in utterly bleak supply lately it’s been time. Between the end of school, holidays, birthdays, colds, and some other junk going on I have barely- barely!- had time to breathe, let alone set up what I have planned for the next Barbie post. It’s in my head, though, where it has remained since Mother’s Day.
Father’s Day was the usual mass chaos around here. We were invited to my mother’s house for lunch, and she lives an hour away. My daughter also was supposed to perform at the county fair in the evening, which is a half hour away but on the way to my mom’s. I felt badly leaving the dogs home all day, so I recruited my accommodating in-laws, who were also going to my parents’ home, to bring the dogs back to my house so I could bring Brody and Koa to the family gathering and then go straight to the fair afterwards. (I have a point, really I do.)
Usually when I am driving around with the dogs it’s just me, or maybe me plus one kid on the short surface street drive to work. I have a little harness for them that clips into the seatbelt, which is probably not going to protect them a whole lot in an impact but would keep me from getting decapitated.
However, today it was the whole family, squished into the smaller of our automobiles. It is smaller, but it is the main family auto. Two adults in the front, two kids in the backseat in their carseats, and in the hatchback, the dogs plus presents, hurtling at 70+ mph down the interstate. Tight fit.
Brody wasn’t really feeling it there in the back, so about halfway through the trip he propped himself up on the back on the middle row of seats so he could see out the front.
“No, Brody,” I said. He looked at me blankly.
“Down, Brody!” I said. He laid his head down on his paws (still propped up on the seat.)
Now I was getting nervous, picturing an event on the freeway that would launch him like a SCUD missile directly over the backseat. After a few minutes of cajoling, me poking at him and doing other probably not-so-safe maneuvers in the ironic name of highway safety, I finally realized that I owe it to them as well as to us to start using a reliable and safe restraint system on a consistent basis.
I have no idea what that might entail, though. Most of the secure systems I’ve seen are designed for small dogs. I need a system that would ideally work in a regular seat as well as a cargo area, one that not only prevents the dog from becoming a projectile but also doesn’t break their neck in the process. I realize the simplest solution would be putting a crate in the back, but because the hatchback slopes, fitting a crate in that car wouldn’t work.
So I’m looking for ideas, here! Do you use a restraint system? What do you like and dislike about it? Have you seen anything super clever I need to know about? Does such a universal system even exist?
