BUYING FOR THE MOTIONALLY CHALLENGED

This is a Motionally Challenged Basset Hound. As you know if you read this now and then. This is Nigel.
It sounds so simple when you are suddenly made aware that you have a dog whose life can be saved if you shell out for a cart, or can get one someone is no longer using, or one is given to you. The dog will be in the cart, he can move around again. Problem solved.
BWAAAAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA
Joke's on you.
First of all there is the problem of incontinence. Maybe you are lucky lucky and your dog has not lost that aspect of his nervous system.
Nigel is kind of half and half. He clearly has sensation. He knows when he needs to poop, for instance (if he is awake) but he cannot control doing it.
While he leaks urine when scooting about, he is capable of stopping at a tree and deliberately marking. So clearly, he has some ability there. It doesn't take a lot of dribbling to stink up a rug, lemme tell you. Or a dog.
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[tip of the year from DWinchester:
 A half-half spray of Listerine and water on the affected Basset, towel dry and add Bond's medicated powder. Not the best but by far better than stale urine.]
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So you get a Belly Band. And pads. (Remember to tell your husbands that the pad has a sticky strip on the back to keep it from falling out of the belly band. Some of us learn the hard way.)
And you struggle to put it on because the dog cannot, of course, stand up.

Please note that in the ads for the Belly Bands, the dogs are standing.

And when the dog with paralyzed back limbs scoots, he scoots right out of the belly band. And dribbles onward....

And scooting causes abrasions-- rug burns-- on the back legs and in our case a scrotum. So you look around on the internet and find what is called a "drag bag". But most of them are made for small dogs.
So you spend more money and find a big one. And when it comes you discover that it not only requires two strong people to put it on, but the zipper zips the dog's back and it takes two hands just to hold the top shut.
What is more, once it is on, the dog refuses to move, believing that you have made him look like a real fool and besides it feels funny and where would he go, anyway, dressed in a shiny blue bag with a huge collar? And inside it, the belly band comes off.

Then you see an ad for a thing to lift the hindquarters, and you think this will keep me out of the orthopedists office for a bit longer, since hauling this dog around with a towel has not helped YOUR back any.
And it is expensive but after all, this is Nigel, so you buy it and when it arrives you read the instructions which inform you that it is NON RETURNABLE and that you cannot lift the dog's legs off the ground.
Ok so I let them drag? What damn good is it? Did it say that in the ad? It did not. (The drag bag is also non-returnable.)

And today I notice one wheel on the cart is canted at a slightly different angle than the other, so all the set screws had to be tightened. Which my uncomplaining husband did before he even had his coffee.

Now there is some snow on the ground and I am not sure what this means for my walks with Nigel. I hope we can continue them.