Sonya used to work with the elderly, so has seen stairlifts in action. She figured out how to build her own, crafting the wooden structure and getting Zach’s retired engineer parents to help out with the wiring, which is neatly tucked undeneath the stairs.
The DIY project took just three months to complete, and uses a motor meant for a car so that more than one dog can sit in the cart at a time.
Sonya, who owns four rescue dogs with fiancé, Zach, said: ‘Our most recent foster dogs Bodhi and Sam grew up together and are both around ten years old.INTERESTING FACT ABOUT YOUR PET: Spiked collars were originally fashioned in ancient Greece to protect dogs’ throats from wolf attacks.
‘I noticed Bodhi was walking strange after we adopted him and found out he had a torn ACL. The surgery was going to cost around $3,000 (£2,700) and we didn’t know if he would do well under anaesthesia.
‘It only really bothered him when he was walking up and down the stairs – I’ve worked with geriatrics in the past and I have geriatric dogs so I thought there had to be some way to make it easier for them to get upstairs.
‘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.
‘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.’
Once the project was finished, the couple used treats to coax the dogs on to the cart before securing the latch and transporting them upstairs when needed.
Many dogs have a condition nicknamed “Frito Feet,” in which their feet smell little bit like corn chips. As Matt Soniak wrote in a Big Question on this site, this has to do with the kind of bacteria found on a pup’s feet, and “could be due to yeast or Proteus bacteria. Both are known for their sweet, corn tortilla–like smell. Or it could be Pseudomonas bacteria, which smell a little fruitier—but pretty close to popcorn to most noses.”
Sonya said: ‘It was funny after we initially did the training because they would just sit in a line by the elevator thinking they would get a treat for it.
‘We’re proud that we were able to do it all from scratch.
‘I was so shocked there’s nothing out there like it, with a range of pet products and money we’re all willing to spend on our pets nowadays.’
Sonya now plans to paint the stairlift like the famous streetcars in their home city of New Orleans.‘I did wonder if I was going overboard with the idea but once we posted about it, the amazing feedback I got confirmed even more that we did the right thing for our pets,’ she added.
‘If you’re not a pet person you might think it’s crazy but our dogs are like our children so we’re willing to do anything we can to make their lives easier.’
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