Our 3rd Year Celebration of Life

Today I, the mommy, am borrowing the blog to share a story.

The story begins on March 16 2007, it was a late in the afternoon on Friday and I needed to run to the bank to deposit a check into my account. Since I and Mollie were the only ones going (Bobo was with his Doggy Nanny) she could ride in her new carseat (Outward Hound Pet Lookout Booster seat).

So I drug it out of the closet and installed it in the front passenger seat of my car. I put Mollie in her hot pink harness and clipped her in to the carseat. Less than two miles from home, as I headed into a sharp curve, a green van came into my lane and hit my car (a 1995 Chevy Caprice) head on.

When the crash happened I passed out and when I woke up Mollie, still attached to her carseat, was climbing out trying to get to me. I unhooked her and slid her in the back seat. Once the fire dept. arrived a volunteer fire fighter came to my car and asked me for my name, a relatives phone number and if I was alright. She said that she would call animal control to pick up the dog but I pleaded with her not to and I cried as I thought of Mollie going to the Humane Society with injuries and sitting in a cold kennel. When she saw how much Mollie ment to me the volunteer told me that she would take her home and have a relative come get her that evening. I was so greatful that she had done that for me and later that evening my grandfather picked her up and brought her home. The next morning my mom took Mollie to the vets office to have her checked out. She had one scratch and a badly bruised shoulder from the impact of the air bag. Five days later after I was realeased from the hospital we were reunited and she sat in my lap squeeking with happiness that I had returned. We camped out on the couch for a week as we healed from what had happened that Friday afternoon.

After the crash her outward hound carseat was unuseable and after seeing what could happen even when a carseat was used I knew the safest place for the dogs was in the back seat. So about 2 weeks later we went to Petsmart and purchased a new one. We got a booster seat that installed in the back seat using the cars seat belt. For a few months it worked but eventually the liftable seat broke and was no long able to be used.

After that I decided to use the carseat hooks in my new car to loop a leash through to use as a seatbelt. Then attach them to Mollie and Bobo's harness. I decided to use this method because all the other commercial seatbelts for dogs had large clips that were extremely heavy.

On the way back from our Nashville trip this year my mom and I started talking about getting a booster set for the dogs....I know fine time to think of it now...after we just hit 8 dog stores...but...Hopefully before the Yard Sale season we can find a nice booster seat for both dogs that fits our budget. Any suggestions are welcome.

Remember to keep the furkids safe when traveling!

-Katie