If you are one who doesn’t like to leave your pet at home on a car trip, but worry about pet safety, here are two options I saw in an article about the latest pet travel gear. They may be slightly over the top, but this is an area of the travel accessory business that’s booming.
If your pet gets cold during car rides, why not consider a bed called a Sleepypod? It heats up when you plug its adapter into your car lighter. And, like a baby car seat carrier, you can take it with you when you leave the car. On the Web site there is a photo of a couple dining at an outdoor cafe with the carrier resting on a chair. There is another of someone waiting in a hotel lobby with the carrier on the floor. And still another of a couple with the carrier between them on a park bench. The photos rotate, so who knows what you’ll see.Another pet car seat for a dog is one that looks like a huge stuffed animal. The stuffed animal seat is called a Bed Pal. It fastens to the backseat of a car with a seat belt. Somehow you buckle your dog into it. There is even a pocket for a dog toy.
I’m sure that my son would love to put our dog Josie in the frog version of this seat. Whenever we travel and take Josie with us, she sits on an old towel on the backseat to keep the dog hair off. (The towel method does not work that well, sad to say.) If a person has a toddler and a dog, I can just see how the toddler might be a bit upset that his or her own car seat is just so darned dull–so utilitarian and not an enormous teddy bear.