A DIY Pomeranian Harness to help “Little” Sophia’s Mobility

Months before “Little” Sophia passed away, my husband and I saw a decline in Sophia’s walking ability. Some days she was the energizer bunny and would hop up and just walk, and walk, and walk… and walk until she would just plop down and start snoozing. It never failed to entertain us. She would try to go anywhere.

The slippery wood floors in our new house were her nemesis… she hated them because she would slip and slide and couldn’t hold her balance. I got her a little runner made of rubber so she could still do laps around the house. I know this sounds crazy but she reminded me of the older ladies that do the “mall walking”. If you are one of those women… please don’t take offense. It’s just an observation. She would put some milage on them old bones… and exercise was very important in the Pommy Mommy house. My husband is a high level fitness professional. Just ask him…

Everyday was a miracle for us and Sophia… she did things no human would have the guts to do… and took it in stride. She was literally fearless. So when her health and mobility started to decline my husband refused to let her give up her dignity… she was too proud… and wanted to walk. Damn she wanted to walk.  At first we got her a kiddie pool to let walk in safety but she wanted to roam… she would fall down and bark until you picked her up. It was a vicious cycle. That’s when I started bringing her up to my husband’s office… the only carpeted room in the house… and she loved it.

While my husband would be working… she was walking, then sleeping. One day  my husband was watching Sophia (as he always did… Sophia was a great distraction from his work) he noticed that she couldn’t keep her balance like she used to. Her luxating patellas messed with her balance but she over came it as with everything else… this time, not so much. She kept falling and was walking in circles. Not something my husband wanted to see… Little Sophia’s neurological symptoms had taken a turn for the worse. Her age and spinal cord exposure was starting to catch up to her… and us.

What to do? We couldn’t keep letting her walk and fall, walk and fall… it was to devastating to watch an most likely would be harmful to Sophia. So that wasn’t going to happen. Sophia was our Little Princess Warrior… and my husband would never let something like neurological problems, luxating patellas, no balance… and whatever else was going on, stand in the way of “Little” Sophia walking. My husband is literally a lunatic when it came to Sophia… and I think he is McGyver from the 80’s TV show. If there’s a problem, he finds the solution… every single time. Mission defined… and mission accomplished.

DIY Pomeranian Harness for “Little” Sophia

If you’ve ever come to the Pommy Mommy house… the first thing you would notice is how insanely organized it is… people make fun of my husband for how organized the garage is. Everything has it’s place and he know’s exactly where it is. I don’t know where I left my coffee cup three seconds ago… he knows where, when and how I left it. I hate him sometimes… haha. So he got to thinking…

All of a sudden I hear him running down the stairs… he’s 225 lbs, so it sounded like a freight train fell down the stairs. I hear the garage door slam and another slam and more freight train… now going up the stairs. Thank goodness our house is built well. I’m a little frightened to actually know what is going on but in all honesty… I was a little curious. I climb the three floors to my husband’s office to see him bending metal and attaching it to canvas.

He then places “Little” Sophia in this perfect fitting harness with handles that allow her to walk around… I can’t even tell you how wide my husband’s smile was because it lit up the room. Sophia was walking and would not stop walking until she was too tired,  and as always, fell a sleep.

So for the next 3 months my husband watched over her in his office and when she wanted to walk, he stopped everything… client calls got hung up on, websites had to wait, books were delayed… nothing happened until Sophia got her walk in… I would hear them up there at 3am, walking… she loved it and we loved making it happen for her.

I was questioning whether I should write this or not but it just shows the incredible spirit Little Sophia had. In Sophia’s final hours I was holding her, I held her for 3 days without sleeping… but in between she would fidget and wanted to walk. She would only walk for a couple of minutes… and then wanted to rest. Up until a half hour before she passed, she walked and took her final walk… she was so happy. After she finished her walk she played with my husband, kissed him and let us know she was ready to go… and I held her.

If you have a Pomeranian that likes to walk like “Little” Sophia did and they have difficulty walking, you can make a DIY Pomeranian harness that can help rehabilitate or exercise your Pom and it doesn’t cost you anything but 2 buckets from Home Depot and a Director’s chair canvas back.

Directions:

Run down the stairs like a lunatic, throw open the garage door so it slams like a truck hit the house… grab a Director’s chair back… and you actually know it’s location… rip off the handles from (2) 5 gallon buckets from Home Depot. Bend them into a rectangle… then if you are Superman… or just strong like my husband, bend the ends to fit inside the canvas back loops. There you have it… a DIY Pomeranian harness to help your Pom get around.