New “Dog Catchers”

Yes, “Dog Catchers” …that’s what Mum is calling them anyway, hehe. 😀

Three years ago Dad built a ramp because at 12 years old I was having trouble getting up the back steps of the big people-kennel. That worked very well for a long time, until the first time (quite a few months ago) I got a bit wobbly and slipped one leg over the side at the top of the ramp and couldn’t get up by myself. Luckily Mum saw it happen and was there to help me get back up again. I didn’t have any more problems for a long time, until recently when I wobbled sideways and fell off my ramp and tumbled over onto my side ending up halfway down the sloping path beside the ramp. Mum saw that happen too and she was very worried about me, but I was OK. Then a couple of days later I fell off the other side of the ramp, about halfway down, this time managing to save myself by somehow landing on my feet. It wasn’t quite as high up as a lounge chair but, as I’m almost 15 years old I haven’t actually jumped off any high things for a long time, so it was a bit of an unpleasant shock for me (and for Mum who witnessed this fall as well).

So now my family have built “dog catchers” on the sides of my ramp so I can’t fall off and hurt myself anymore. Dad made the pipe rails for it, Mum came up with the idea of using shade-cloth for the side walls and Man-brother4 helped Mum staple the shade-cloth to the sides of the ramp this afternoon. (Click images to enlarge.)

Mum said she’ll get some blue pool noodles to put over the lower rails and uprights to pad them so I don’t hurt myself if I do fall against them, and Dad still has to screw some timber strips along the bottom edge of the shade-cloth to attach it more securely to the ramp — Mum says the staples will eventually rust so it needs better fasteners to keep the shade-cloth nice and tight to catch me if I fall. I’ll try to remember to add more photos to this post when those extra bits are added.

For now though, I’m very happy that I can’t fall off my ramp anymore! WOOF!! 😀