Who is GERTIE?

In the Fall of 2004, "Gertie" was adopted from the local shelter — a stray if you can believe it. We were told she was about 5-6 years old and 100% Beagle. Of course there were no papers, but they could tell she was bred often and as they put it, “had a hard life”. She was pregnant when found and fostered by a shelter volunteer for two months or so before we took her home, still recovering from surgery.

Gertie soon visited our family vet — dental exams and milky eyes estimated her age closer to 8-9 years then, which puts her at 14-15 now (in her 60’s or 70’s in human years). Gertie has many ailments that come and go, including chronic ear infections, mild seizures and “slipped disks” with back pain every so often, but she still has a puppy’s (particularly mischievous) spirit and a happy life. This is where it gets interesting…

No day with Gertie is boring. It takes a lot of energy (and ingenuity) to keep up with this smart little dog. Deemed “highly food motivated”, she opens cupboards and climbs on chairs, etc. to reach anything she sees as edible. Once, in the middle of the night, she scaled a baby gate twice her height to sneak into the basement and open a spare refrigerator containing an entire pot roast! Yeah, she got caught … because she got sick, along with the rest of the animals in the house that night.

Being up in years, Gertie has special needs — she needs back support when she sleeps and, quite frankly, she pees a lot — often in her bed. After purchasing a dozen or more different kinds of pet beds that have either fallen apart in the wash, caused the washing machine to “walk”, or take up half of the living room, the idea for the Gertie Gear™ air bed was born.

Gertie (and her sister Jackie, a beagle-shepherd mix) have been using the beds for months and LOVE them! The tough inner cover protects the inflatable from holes, a pee-pad slipped between the two fabric covers takes care of incontinence problems, and when it’s time to wash, we simply change the outer cover, kind of like changing a pillow case. Gertie never has to go without the comfort and support her Gertie Gear™ air bed provides, and we never have to do an emergency load of laundry. Plus, the different fabric covers look fantastic!