Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!

A new driver is on the road and his name is Tinker. Tinker's cart arrived from Eddie's Wheels last week and the little guy is zipping around like Mario Andretti. Dr. DeLucia, his rehab vet, needed to make some adjustments to the cart so we had to wait a few days. He once again commented that "this dog is going to walk". Tinker adapted to the cart in about 2 seconds. It's well constructed and very lightweight aluminum that weighs all of maybe 5 lbs. His legs go through the openings in the firm seat, which is a figure 8 covered with spongey neoprene. A "door" swings over the top of him and locks into place; kind of like the safety feature on amusement park rides. There is also a webbed strap that locks in place across his chest in front to help keep him in place and to keep the cart steady while he walks.



Some dogs will let the cart do the walking for them, but not Tinker. As he speedily walks along with his front feet, most of the time he puts both of his back feet down to walk. The only problem is that sometimes his front legs are moving so fast that he makes the back wheels go fast, and then he can barely get his back feet down. He'll have to work on the mechanics.



He's having an absolute blast. We went to a nearby park this past Sunday and took him on a newly-created path that surrounds the lake. Everyone from bikers to joggers to parents with their kids in strollers were "wowed" by our Little Dude. Most had never seen a dog cart before. Except for the occasional wheel getting stuck on something and pulling up a ton of leaves, Tinker moved along smoothly.

Having him in the cart also takes some of the burden off of us, because walking him with the sling is very tiring and a little painful to the back and elbow of the beleaguered human. Of course our boy is well worth it.