Necessity is the mother of invention
Some years ago our little daughter, Sissa, could one day suddenly not get up to stand. Her back legs would not work as always. My wife and I immediately put in a days leave and took her off to our vet. Dr. Malan checked her back legs and diagnosed her with myopathy. An operation was scheduled for the next day and we went home with heavy hearts taking her with us. The operation was done the next day and we were informed of the risks and the long recovery period and physiotherapy. We took her for physio which included swimming exercises, leg exercises and low incline ramp walking. Her back legs got stronger over time and she could again walk on her own. But her days of jumping were over and she struggled with high steps, which we had around the home. Researching the effect of jumping and high stepping on pets, made us look again at how our other kids were also conducting themselves. So jumping became a no-go in our house.

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Their dad got to work and started erecting make-shift ramps to cover any steps outside the house, added low steps in front of the beds they used during the day. Inside the house, couches and our bed were a different problem altogether. We could not find any low-incline ramps to buy anywhere. The little steps available were simply to much for Sissa and the one ramp we could find had a too steep incline and were simply horrible looking. As it happens my wive gave the order for a ramp to be built to use at our bed. And as any good husband would, I started immediately working on that. Using steel tubing and angle-iron I work shopped a few ideas and made changes as I went along. I soon realized that a low-incline ramp would have to be considerably lengthy. Sissa suffers from arthritis as well, so a low inline is a must. Also that it would not be very practical to have a wide ramp on the side of a bed where in which two people are sleeping, as it made it quite difficult to get over for the person on which side of the bed it stood. After many prototypes and adjustment I finally had a working model. It was extremely heavy and long but it worked a treat. It stood 600mm  past the base of our double-size bed with some sharp angles at the end. I knocked and cut my toes numerous times on these sharp edges. Not nice when you have just woken up in the morning.

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The family grows a little.

Another single bed was added next to the double bed later, since our kids grew in number from 2 to 4. A stray we rescued from the streets, we named her Polony, came to us. On a visit to my mother in law, my boy accidentally  got to meet her miniature Doberman pincher intimately. From that rendezvous one baby was born and we eventually invited her to stay with us. She was properly named Oopsy. As anyone with a bed-sleeping pet knows, they love spreading themselves out to such an extent that you find mom sleeping on the one side of the bed, kids all over the middle and dad at the other side. The added single bed just made the sleeping arrangements easier for all of us. But there is also nothing as nice as w cold winter night with a little furry warm bode curled up next to you.

Coming back to my ramp, I designed it with a landing area at the top, and we have a water bowl there, which makes it easier for the kids to have a drink during the night. Where we used to wake up during the night to let the kids down from the bed for toilet-time, they now use the ramp to get down and go outside through the doggie-door on their own. 

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Easiwalk is born

A vet friend on day visited at our house and saw our ramp. He really seemed to like it and remarked that there were many pet-owners out there for whom such a ramp would assist, especially with their older and arthritic pets. Months went by and I busied myself with various other projects on weekends. During this time I talked to many pet-owners at work and around our circle of friends, and many wanted me to make a ramp for them. On holiday in Ballito on the KZN-coast, it dawned on my how many pet-owners there actually were out there who viewed their pets as kids in the house. My design were pretty heavy and since it is all welded together it would be almost impossible to make and transport to people. When time permitted I started to think of a solution for a shippable, lightweight ramp that could be assembled at anyone's home. I found none on the market in South Africa. The only ramp I could find was made from wood, were very short , had an extremely steep incline and no side braces. Side braces are extremely important. They prevent a pet from jumping off the ramp and it makes the pet feel more secure to use the ramp. After attaching braces to my original ramp, our kids had no issues using the ramp for the first time. I played around with aluminum tubing as the base material, soon realized that a bending machine would be required as well.  All tools acquired, and many many prototypes later the ramp was born as it is today. Our Sissa became my "guinea pig" and if she struggled with the incline, I knew adjustments had to be made. Success!

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