It’s tough to see our beloved pooches getting older and losing mobility, but New Orleans resident Sonya Karimi wasn’t about to let her rescue pups’ advanced age keep them from getting around. She actually had a doggie stairlift built in her house so that the dogs could get up and down the stairs easily, and from the looks of things, they love it!
- Sonya owns four rescue dogs and three of them are elderly. They include 10-year-old Bodhi, 13-year-old George, 10-year-old Sam, and a younger and more spritely 4-year-old Emery. She got the idea to build the doggie stairlift when she adopted Bodhi a few months ago since he had torn knee ligaments that made climbing hard.
- She calls it “The Doggie-vator.” Perfect name given that it’s made especially for her pups! There’s a ramp for the dogs to walk up to get into the actual “cart,” where they’re then given a slow and steady ride to the top of the stairs. Talk about a genius invention!
- Shockingly, this hadn’t been done before. “At work, I’ve seen how helpful stairlifts are to people so I was surprised there wasn’t anything similar for dogs with all the different products that are available for pets nowadays. So I thought that we might be able to create something ourselves for our dogs to use,” Sonya, who’s an occupational therapist, told The Daily Mail.
- The dogs took to it easily and absolutely love it. Unsurprisingly, the doggie stairlift has been a major hit on Sonya’s house. “They’ve adapted to it so quickly, I thought I’d have to train them for a while to get used to it but they just get on it as if they’ve had it for years! The two older pugs love it especially – they won’t use the stairs, they will sit there and wait until the ride is ready for them and it’s so cute,” she explained.
- It took about here months to build. Sonya built the doggie stairlift with the help of her fiance Zach and it came out great. These are some wonderful dog parents!
