In my most recent blog, I wrote about my weekend adventures running a farmer's market booth for a pet treat company and all of the dogs I got to meet and treat with samples. What I failed to mention was that on the second day, I developed heat exhaustion, and it was terrifying.
I had gone to work the booth with four bottles of water and two bottles of Powerade. I'm not a big sports drink person because, by the time I burn calories working up a sweat, the last thing I want to do is drink more calories and undo what I just did. We have them in the fridge for my daughter's marching band practices and my husband's runs, though, so I figured it would be smart to grab a few.
I ended up purchasing three more bottles of water at the event, and despite trying to hide in the shade and take a break in the air-conditioned truck before packing up the booth, I ended up overheating, with a horrible headache, vomiting, cold chills, dizziness and more. It was perhaps one of the scariest moments of my life, but fortunately, I was able to get into the refuge of the air-conditioned vehicle, drive home, and get my body back to normal.
Yesterday I was out at a different local dog event and once again it was around 90 degrees outside before factoring in the sun and the fact that the event was on a blacktop paved parking lot. I was only a spectator and still, it was unbearable, and I was really quite upset about the number of owners who had their dogs out with them. Shocked, in fact, as there was no way that I would have brought Jackson and Tinkerbell out of a perfectly good air conditioned home and subjected them to that. If it is too hot for me, it is without a doubt too hot for them.
I have thought about my experience with overheating and fact that as a human, I had ways of helping myself, a stark contrast to the dogs who are harmed by excessive heat every summer in situations that they cannot control. I know how terrified I was, and I understood what was happening and could get help on my own, could use my cell phone to call for help if I had needed it. These dogs who are left in cars or trailers in the summer weather do not, and the warm temperatures impact them even faster than they do us.
One of the reasons I love the Nimble Wireless RV Pet Safety Monitor is that it is not just for RVs. The fact that it has a battery and is portable means that you can take it literally anywhere your dog is and get periodic and continual updates on the temperature in that area. Or you can just leave it at home.
I cannot tell you how many times I have obsessed over what the temperature was at home when I was away from home. I have called in sick at my old job when our air conditioning malfunctioned on a 100-degree day and I refused to leave my dogs home to possibly bake in a hot house. I have agonized over whether or not the power was out during stormy weather when I worked twenty-five miles away from home. Almost twenty years ago, when my late Babe and I lived in an apartment in an old Victorian home, I obsessed over whether or not she would be safe or not while I was at work, or if the window unit upon which we relied would blow the circuit breaker yet again.
Even this last spring before we had serviced the AC for the upcoming summer and we were going through a hot day here and there, I stressed anytime I left the dogs home alone, worrying that the temperature might become too warm while I was out networking or running errands, since we do not leave windows open when nobody is home. Now, dogs are smart when it comes to the heat and when they are able to, they will look for ways to cool themselves down through the methods that they instinctively know as dogs, but we are the ones in control of their environment and sometimes the things we use to keep them safe like a crate or kennel make them unable to find a breezy area or a cool surface on which to lay.
I wish I had had the RV Pet Safety monitor to give me peace of mind during all of these events! In my opinion, the cost is low compared to the peace of mind that it buys you. Plus, it monitors all temperatures, not just heat, so come winter you can also have peace of mind that your home is not too cold when you are away at work or play.
This post is sponsored by the Nimble Wireless Pet Safety Monitor
