I made a decision a few months ago that I knew was going to mean some changes for me. When I took my position at work I knew that part of my job was transporting clients, and I couldn’t do that in my Soul. For the first few months I made it work by switching vehicles with my parents, but even that wasn’t exactly going smoothly. I was buying time while I did some research, seeing what was on the market. Finally I had narrowed it down to two vehicles, and I went and did some test drives. There was one clear contender at the end of the first drive. But that wasn’t all I was thinking about.
I have harped again and again about safe travelling with dogs. Not only are loose dogs projectiles in an accident, but a dog that is wiggling around in your car is a dangerous distraction. * Side Note * I have a good friend who is a police officer, and he has been handing out distracted driving fines to people driving with dogs out of crates in the car if he can see the dog moving in the vehicle.
I put almost 4000KM a month on my vehicle, 2500KM of that is with the dogs in the car, most of that being highway travel. I had some serious decisions to make when it came to a new vehicle, and one of them was how was I going to contain my dogs? I had Dog-it crates and PetSmart crates as spares, and for regular use I had RuffTough - now RuffLand - crates, but I found they lacked ventilation. The cost of having them - the RTs - customed in the States then shipped was going to be astronomical, but I still wasn’t writing that option off yet. I kept looking, and I kept on coming back to the issue of wanting to be able to see out my back window; something I haven’t been able to do in years! I spend quite a bit of time driving with clients, and I want to know that I’m as safe as possible with them in the vehicle.
For years I’ve looked at Variocages. I didn’t have room for one in my Soul, but I saw them as a possibly viable option with a larger vehicle if I wanted to keep my back seats avaiable for passengers. Now having the backseats available wasn’t just a want, it was a must with my job!
So this is what my setup looks like now! I spoke with Norm at BravePoint Kennels. He listened to my concerns, talked about options I had available to me, and gave me a great deal on both the cage and the drawer. The drawer is quite possibly the best thing ever, allowing me storage space for all my gear that I need for class and basic travel. When I go away for a weekend I still lose at least half the backseat to gear, but that’s a given for any away trip.
This weekend coming is my first away weekend since I started my new job, and I am so looking forward to it. It’s the PSD trial in Syracuse, and we leave tomorrow morning after I do a caregiver introduction. Today I have to bathe Caoimhe, finish packing my gear, and load up the car. Can’t.Wait!!!