Kia Ora and welcome to MAELSON Adventure Pets! We are Campbell (human) and Taj (canine)…and this is our story.
I first met Taj in 2016 at a rescue shelter in the Macedon Ranges in Victoria, Australia. While living and working in Melbourne I decided to start looking at adopting a dog and – all going well – a best mate and 'Second-In-Command' for adventures henceforth! I spent the next 6 months or so driving to meet-and-greets around the greater Melbourne area to meet pups who were looking for their forever home. I eventually met “Knucklehead”, nearly by mistake;
I had traveled into regional Victoria to this particular shelter initially to meet a couple of other fine pups from their website, and at the last minute my older brother Iain told me I needed to check out the black and white mutt as well...so I thought “fine no dramas, I still want the Kelpie though”...
Taj however, had other ideas…and as soon as I walked through the center of the dog bunkers , he made it very clear – with a lot of howling and little-pup barking – that in fact it was him that I wanted.
One EXTREMELY well-behaved walk later, I didn’t need to meet the other pups and my mind was made up. I was going to give this scrawny teenage mutt the best life I could, and I needed a plan to make it happen because he wasn't available for adoption for another 7 days! On top of that, there were no pre-payments allowed, and no options to put my name down to adopt him.
I drove back up to the shelter the following week, at 3am on the day he was to become available for adoption. I camped outside the shelter on a fold-out chair, in the middle of winter, dressed head to toe in winter garb and a tucked into my sleeping bag until opening, to be sure that I was “first in, first served”. Back in Melbourne I quickly discovered during our first missions out and about, that he had virtually faked his amazingly disciplined walking-on-the-lead during the meet-and-greet, which I had to grudgingly give him maximum points for.
An elaborate ruse indeed.
But we were home, and he had his new pack to fit in to at our house, and a whole new life ahead of him.
4 years, a 2,624 km flight and many many missions later we are now based back in my beautiful home country of Aotearoa, and we are having the time of our lives; ADVENTURE is the name of the game. FRESH AIR, COOL WATER & AMAZING NEW PLACES.
I always found it somewhat depressing that pet owners often have to leave their animals with family or friends, or pay for kennels when they travel to go on their own adventures.
Of course this can’t be helped in many situations, but what I desperately wanted was something that could make our own adventures that much easier and more enjoyable, both for me and the animal.
What I have found in the MAELSON Soft Kennel, is a transportable home for Taj…one that we can pack up easily (with no extra bags or boxes needed), and jump in the car and hit the road, meaning he can join me on virtually all the trips we go on.
On top of that, Taj has a familiar place to stay…a house – HIS HOUSE – that belongs to him, smells like him and that he knows he can retreat to whenever he wants a rest.
If I have to travel somewhere and I cannot take the animal with me, this amazing Soft Kennel can be dropped to family or friends with the dog while they dog-sit, and I know it will give him the familiar comforts of home while I’m gone.
I'm proud to bring these amazing products to my home country for the first time; New Zealand has one of the highest rates of pet ownership in the world...we LOVE our furry friends, so it's only right that we have the best quality products available here too.
I'm looking forward to sharing our own adventures, and seeing yours too...so let's get out there!
