This is a story near and dear to our hearts on the importance of keeping your pets safe while they are traveling in the vehicle with you.
Beautiful Roxy here was involved in a traffic accident with her owner on a hot summer day. When we arrived on scene her owner had been taken to the hospital. Roxy was in good hands but you could see she was quite confused and a little shaken. We took her in to our Neighbor-to Neighbor foster program where she was taken to a foster and cooled down and given some much needed TLC.
This could have been much worse though. Roxy was not properly restrained and although she was in the back part of the cab she was still tossed around during the accident. She is a very lucky girl that she did not sustain severe injuries.
As you can see with just a leash it is too easy for Roxy to make her way into the front seat and possibly distract the driver or even get tossed in to the dash if the owner has to come to a sudden stop.
After several hours we were able to receive contact from Roxy’s owner and make arrangements to reunite them again. When we met with the owner we asked if we could assist her with proper travel harnesses and restraints. With her vehicle, a crate was not possible.
She gladly accepted and we asked that she please email us measurements of Roxy. We received the email and also learned that Roxy had a brother named Harley. In addition, we also learned that the owner traveled for a living and that the two (Roxy and Harley) took turns riding with their owner on her daily routine. They love to travel and as long as we could help her keep them safe we loved to here that they enjoyed their daily rides.
We arranged to meet with the Roxy and Harley with their owner to get them fitted in their new harnesses. Their harnesses went on easily and we got them clicked in and secured with the seat belt leashes. At first it was quite a task as they were used to moving around and about throughout the vehicle. We explained to the owner that she would need to give them some time to get used to this new rule of traveling in the car! In the end, we all have piece of mind that Roxy and Harley can travel safely and they look pretty darn good in those new harnesses!
Roxy
No matter what type of vehicle pet safety device you use, please do your research and choose the one that best fits your vehicle and your pet. This not only protects your pet, but it protects other drivers on the road by assuring your pet is not a distraction while you are operating your vehicle.
Harley
