Words by Cheyne Heyer | As told by GUNNER
I went on a hike with my wife, daughter, and pups (Faith and Reba) after church with a few friends of ours. When we got back to the truck, I loaded the pups into their GUNNER Intermediate kennel and my buddy said, “Man that's a nice kennel.” I started bragging about the testimonies and crash testing and telling him how awesome the kennels are. They usually ride in the same kennel together, as Faith is a pup still growing
We left and were headed home when a truck started coming into our lane.
At first, I thought he was just texting and would swerve back into his lane. I thought to myself, “Man, he's not getting over,” and at the last second, I tried to swerve to the right.
He ended up hitting us in front of the driver's door head-on at an angle going over 70 mph, while we were traveling about 55 mph. Because of the way I swerved, both the truck bed and the driver's door took the impact.
We spun into a ditch, hit a driveway and culvert, and spun into another driveway before ending up facing the complete opposite way of the direction we were driving. The truck driver ended up about 150 yards away from us if that says anything about the impact.
The scariest part about this whole accident is that my wife had just taken her seatbelt off to help my daughter with something behind her.
She is also 20 weeks pregnant. She hit her head so hard that she lost feeling in her upper body for close to thirty minutes.
An amazing guy came running up to check and see if we were okay. Once he checked on us and helped us out of the truck he asked if we had a dog in the kennel. I told him they were okay without even checking. I had no doubts that the kennel kept them safe and did its job.
After everything calmed down a bit, I wanted to make sure we got away from the truck and road just to be safe. I took the kennel out of the truck and put the dogs back in it to keep them contained. The kennel not only kept them safe in the accident, but I was able to keep them contained in a hectic situation. They were a little shaken up, but physically they were perfectly fine.
Pretty soon after, the ambulance showed up and took my wife to the hospital. It was at that point I realized how bad this whole situation could have been. My wife, daughter, unborn baby, and dogs were safe. However many seconds or minutes it lasted, it was all God. I was frozen.
The man that hit us was completely drunk and speeding. He was taken to jail once the police got there.
Looking back, the sense of calmness I had with the dogs after the wreck was worth every penny. I knew without a doubt in my mind that they were safe. I truly think the kennel stopped the truck bed from caving in even more– it stopped right where the kennel was sitting.
We actually came into the showroom a few months beforehand to get the kennel, and I am very thankful we did. I have always pushed the kennels but because I experienced this firsthand, I can truly attest to how they work. If you have a dog, you need to do everything you can for that animal. Between the dog, training, waders, and other gear, your investment adds up to thousands of dollars. At the end of the day, the kennel ends up being a smaller investment compared to most things. I can't speak highly enough about these kennels. They saved my dogs' lives without a doubt.
