As our regular guests know, our little Jack Russell Rosie is getting on in age. Although deaf by now and having lost a lot of muscle power, her heart is still going strong according to the vet this week. Seventeen years and six months almost to the day. She came to Rosemoor at four months old and I vividly remember the day we brought her back from Trimsaran, where her mother and her siblings enthusiastically had taken over the daily life of a very nice family. I was with three Dutch friends, who were immediately designated as her godmothers. They had her on her lap and she was car sick all te way back – certainly something to remember. It took a few months before she was fine in the car, having been gradually acclimatised to its movement. This is her as a pup on a walk around the Bosherton Lily ponds, Broad Haven South, in Januari 2009.
That was Rosie then, and now we are a lifetime further. Lately, we have had to consider how best to accommodate her, and our, needs as it became difficult to take her with us wherever we went: she cannot walk fast or far, she needs her rests and she needs her routine, as she now also suffers from Canine Cognitive Disfunction. In other words: she is slightly demented at times in the best and worst interpretation of the word. But still as lovable as the day she came to live with us. Enter the dog stroller. After some research, we found a (actually Dutch) brand called InnoPet that had just the thing we were looking for: a sturdy, not too cumbersome stroller that could cope with the beach and uneven terrain. A small company called K9wagons, based in Tavistock, has as their logo #nodogleftbehind which appealed to us, so we went with them and the stroller arrived within a few days, just before Christmas. We cannot fault them.
We have uploaded a short video on YouTube and it gives you a good idea what the stroller is like in practice.
In the few weeks since then, she has been with us to quite a few beaches and places to eat. We take her out of the stroller for as long as she can walk and put her back in when it becomes too much. She snoozes away in the stroller while we have a cup of coffee or lunch. It is a win-win for all involved.