Hot Weather And Dogs In Cars!

[Robbi]

I work at the chapel complex of a large cemetery in Adelaide, this morning it was stinking hot in our car park by 9am. I was in the courtyard area looking at the goldfish in our pond when people were arriving for an early funeral, an elderly couple were standing in the car park looking a little bit stressed by the heat, I went over to see if they were okay.

They had brought their dog a sweet old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel with them as they lived in the hills and had been scared to leave the dog home with the Catastrophic fire warning in effect. So they had brought him to the funeral with them but had given no thought as to what to do with the old boy whilest they were in the funeral, the husband said he would be okay in the car :D but the wife(thankfully) had reservations, the old man thought dog would be fine as they had parked in the shade and he had put a freezer block in the backseat next to the dog.

When we walked over to the car all the windows were up and the little dog was sitting on the floor in the back of the car already looking stressed, it was already very hot in the car

I assured the old man that there was no way the dog could stay in the car as he would die. Long story short Sammy the dog came into the chapel office with me for the next couple of hours while the couple went to the funeral but it could have ended very differently if I hadn't been practicing work avoidence techniques.

What worries me is that they may do it again and not be so fortunate, Sammy was obviously well loved, immaculately groomed and a sweet old fellow who took being handled by stangers in his stride. I gave them a little talk about dogs in cars in hot weather but I really think they had been so scared by the media and the fire danger warnings on the radio that they had put no thought into what to do with Sammy other than get him out of the fire risk area when truth be told he would have been far safer left at home.

Sorry for the long post but it gave me the cold chills and nobody else at work seemed to realise Sammy was nearly a dead dog

Edited December 31, 2010 by Robbi

[Remarkabull]

While at work today a customer came in and asked us to page for the person who had left their dog in the car (no windows down!) while shopping. It turned out to be an older gentleman who 'forgot' his dog was in the car as he was busy looking at drills! The man and his daughter that noticed this dog in the car followed him while he got his dog out of the car and were yelling at him and threatening to call RSPCA. Poor little dog was very hot and very glad to be out of the car but owner would not let us give her a drink. Not sure why he left her in the car anyway, dogs are allowed in the shop as long as they are on a trolley :D .

[harley]

Oh how sweet of you to have Sammy in the office with you! I'm sure he enjoyed his time with you immensely!

I really hope they understand how close they came to losing their beloved dog, it certainly was hot here today!

[tlc]

To you, what a good deed you did, little doggy was lucky you were practicing work avoidance techniques today. :D

[Bully]

Lucky Sammy

[westiemum]

Well done Robbi - and quite frankly I can just see the publicity now for your (foreign owned?) cemetery too if the dog had died...

"Old dog of elderly couple at funeral dies cos mean foreign owned cemetery made him stay in the car in 40 degree heat!'

Not a good look on that front either - so far from work avoidance techniques, I think you did your employer a big favour!!

Yay for Sammy and his owners who obviously love him dearly.

[newfsie]

Well done, solved a problem and educated the people too. And done in a lovely manner :)