pet connection

Over on our DogCars.com Web site Keith Turner writes about all the bling that would make a DogCar just about perfect for two-legged and four-legged passengers both. My own list starts with fold-flat seats and easy-clean interiors and ends (so to speak) with fanny warmers (the latter for me, not the dogs!), but he takes it a lot further:

Power Tailgate — When your arms are loaded with grocery and feed bags, and it’s raining cats and dogs (not literally) in the massive mall parking lot, there’s nothing I appreciate more than the ability to push a button on my key chain to automatically open the tailgate (or sliding cargo doors of a minivan). The dogs are quickly inside and so are my bags.

Power Fold Flat Seats — Another touch-of-a-button convenience that quickly becomes habit-forming.

Abundant cargo hooks — Dog crates and harnesses are of little use if they are not secured. Give me multiple hook choices and I’m a happy hound.

Well-lighted interiors — I don’t know why, but too many vehicles still don’t have well-lighted rear interiors. It’s not like we drive only in daylight.

That’s just the start. Vroom on over, check out the list and add your comments.  And check out my post on why dogs should never be loose in a vehicle.  But, in the do as I say, not as I do department … there’s the above picture of Drew in my brother’s T-Bird convertible. Hey ladies, how YOU doin’? Cool ride, dontcha think?

Yeah, mine ride in crates, most all the time, but sometimes … you just gotta go a little bit c-c-c-crazy. At least I didn’t let him share the lattes. And that picture is three years old. I’ve gotten religion since. 

The lower picture  is of my own vehicle, Forest Green, a ‘97 Plymouth Voyager minivan, in a “one-crate” configuration for a long trip I was taking with Woody. Usually, it’s in a four-crate set-up, with Midwest side-by-sides in the back and two Vari-Kennels in the middle (Pip and Drew are more comfortable in solid crates, while wet retrievers dry off more quickly in open ones. That big wire crate pictured is a Great Dane-sized one from Precision, and I also have soft-sided crates from Cabana and Noz2Noz. I also carry water pails, shade cloths, pop-up canopies, toys, a cart, folding soft chairs for people and …. uh … lots of other stuff I can’t remember. Yes, this paid-for vehicle I bought new in a decade ago (and it only has 85K miles!) is my dedicated dog car. (Which works out because I drive a new test DogCar every week.)

So many great choices these day in DogCars and transportation supplies. I never could have imagined it all when I started writing about pets almost 25 years ago.