SauruStore, Dinosaur holiday storage.

Due to a serious shortage of product testers we have had to rearrange this months tests. The promised test will be coming but at a later date, we hope that this does not cause too much inconvenience.

Now to this months test, a brand new product on the market which claims to be the answer to all your holiday problems, it is called SauruStore and comes from those ingenious people at Dino Inc.

First of all, what is it? Well, how many times have you wanted to go away on holiday but cannot find anyone to look after your pet while you are away? Or tried to persuade your local haulage company to lend you a low loader to take your pet to the kennels (if you can find one in the first place). It is not easy! Enter SauruStore, it takes the worry out of leaving your pet while you are away - well, that is what the makers claim, we shall see.

SauruStore is basically a large tent, held up by inflatable columns, you simply lead your pet inside, switch on the chiller unit and as the temperature drops your pet happily slips into hibernation while you head off for a couple of weeks of sun, sand and cheap plonk!

We opted to test the medium size model aimed at the Stegosaurus/Triceratops market as we felt this would be the most popular size. As delivered SauruStore comes in three packing cases, one very large and two smaller ones. On opening the first of the smaller ones we find the compressor/chiller unit and all the temperature and pressure sensors, the second smaller box contains a range of different size polystyrene balls, tubes of glue and several rolls of sticky tape - more on this later. The third and largest container holds the tent, assorted ropes and pegs and the instruction manual.

The first thing we noticed is that the tent appears to be made out of very tough high quality reinforced PVC, while this is very reassuring, it does mean that the thing weighs a ton. It is a good idea to have the delivery people unload it where you intend to use it as moving the thing without the aid of a crane or stacker truck is extremely difficult!!

The instructions simply say to remove tent from packing case and unfold on your lawn or patio. Well, not so simple, more like remove the packing case from around the tent, which then collapses into a heap on the lawn (forget the patio bit - that must be for the smaller model). First problem, our test stegosaurus -Bert, developed a hither to unknown attack of curiosity and sat down on one corner of the part unfolded tent to see what we were doing. This problem was resolved after a quick trip to the local green grocer for a couple of crates of cabbages. Having lured Bert off to a far corner of the garden and left him happily munching his lunch, we get on with the rather strenuous task of unfolding the tent which took the three of us the best part of a day to complete.

The next morning we start the inflation process, this involves unpacking the chiller/compressor unit and connecting all the hoses and sensors to the tent. The manual is very good and takes you through the process in a nice step by step manner, also, all the hoses and connectors are colour coded so there is not much chance of getting things wrong.

Now, having the tent unfolded and all the various bits and pieces connected up we switch on and sit back. The manual says ‘You will see the test majestically rise from the ground’, well that may be so but they don’t say what time scale they are working on, if fact it took two days to inflate the columns and we had better things to do rather than stand there watching it. It must be said that the pressure sensor is a nice feature, this switches the compressor off when it is fully inflated and prevents it from going bang, it also switches the compressor on again should the pressure in the columns go down, thus (hopefully) preventing the thing collapsing on your sleeping pet.

Having now got the thing up and inflated, I must admit it does look rather impressive, and about the size of the average marquee. At the front there is a large door flap which can be raised and lowered by an integral pulley system which does work quite well although it takes two strong men on the ropes to raise the thing. Next job is to connect all the anchor ropes and peg them to the ground, this is a must as, although there is no chance of it moving once your pet is inside, without his (or her) weight holding it down, a good gust of wind could blow it over!

Now it is ready for your pet, says the manual - well not quite, the first thing you notice when you go inside is the smell of new PVC! We were in no doubt that Bert would take an immediate objection to it and after that there would be no way of ever getting him inside, so we decided that the only way was to leave the door flap open for a couple of days and give it a good airing.

It has now been the best part of a week since we started this test and we are only now ready to try and get Bert inside the SauruStore. If you were thinking that you could get all this done on the morning before you leave for your holiday - forget it. It takes a lot of work to get this far and we still have to prepare Bert for ‘storage’

So now we come to the section of the manual headed ‘Preparing your pet for storage’, This is where the third packing case comes in, the one with the polystyrene balls, glue and sticky tape.

Almost all dinosaurs have horns, spikes and or claws of some kind and these horns, spikes and or claws may damage the fabric of the tent should your pet get a bit frisky once you have him inside and before you get the temperature low enough to send him to sleep. so, your pet has to be ‘prepared’. Firstly, the manual says, ‘apply a dab of glue to any horns or spikes your pet may have, then firmly press on an appropriately sized polystyrene ball thus rendering the said horn or spike quite harmless, then taking one foot at a time, wrap your pets claws with the sticky tape’. The manual made it sound quite simple so I delegated the task to George and Tony who were my helpers on this project.

Both George and Tony had assured me that they were experienced Stegosaurus keepers, I must stress this point in the light of what happened next, the problem was with Bert. His owner had assured me that he was a normal everyday stegosaurus with no unusual traits, this was not the case. I should have noticed something was wrong when he displayed curiosity earlier on in the week, this is not normal for a stegosaurus, also he did on occasions move quite quickly, another point none of us picked up on.

What happened to George and Tony in no way reflects on the product we were all testing but must serve as a warning of the care that must be taken when handling other peoples pet dinosaurs.

George set out to apply the glue and polystyrene balls to the spikes on Bert's tail. Now a normal stegosaurus would not be aware of anything happening to his tail until about a week after it had happened. Not so with Bert, every time George got hold of a spike Bert would turn around to see what was going on, making it quite impossible to get the ball on his spike. Tony had the idea of distracting Bert with cabbages while George crept up behind and did the job on his tail. The trouble was that Bert got so excited at the cabbages that he started wagging his tail just as George was creeping up behind him. Now as you may know, it is not usual for a stegosaurus to wag his tail, unless he has been frightened by something, they do not normally do it when they are excited, to be fair they don’t normally get excited at all. Bert was different.

Now when a stegosaurus does wag his tail as we all know, it is better not to be anywhere near him, poor George was, in fact he was right in the line of fire. The force of impact sent the poor man flying across the garden straight into the side of the SauruStore tent, now the side of the tent being nicely tensioned by the inflated vertical columns has similar properties to a trampoline and having arrested George's flight promptly sent him hurtling back towards the now approaching spikes of Bert's tail! The impact of George on Bert's tail spikes must have caused him some alarm as he did a quick spin round to see what is was, this spin caused this tail to whiplash round and catch Tony sending him flying up into the air only to land on top of the SauruStore tent, now the top, having similar properties to the side, catapulted him back up into the air and straight over the garden wall into the road outside. A quick analysis of the situation made me realise that there was nothing that could be done for George so I went outside to give assistance and or first aid to Tony only to find that he was nowhere to be found. The mystery was cleared up a few days later when he rang me to say that he had landed unconscious in the back of a lorry, and wasn't found until the lorry reached the depot a couple of hundred miles away in Aberdeen. He said that he was in hospital with mild concussion and a couple of broken ribs but he would be back on the job soon. Tony is a good man and a fine product tester, we could do with more like him.

In the meantime, with the help of a neighbour and while Bert was distracted eating the cabbages, I managed to rescue poor George from the tail spikes where he was impaled.

Now that I was on my own I felt it might be as well to skip the section on 'preparation' and carry on with the test as best I could. Next step, getting Bert into the tent, This was easily done by laying a trail of cabbages that led straight into the tent. Bert duly followed the trail and ended up in the tent without any bother. I quickly lowered the door flap, secured it with the fasteners and switched on the chiller unit. Now he should quietly go to sleep while I go off for a well deserved holiday. No! I couldn't see what was going on inside the tent but I think that Bert, feeling it was getting colder decided to turn round and leave through the door, but having turned round and not found the door, as I had closed it, he just went on turning round and round.

If I had not skipped the section on ‘preparing your pet’ and had fitted his tail spikes with the correct sized polystyrene balls things may have been different, as it was the whirling tail spikes of a constantly rotating stegosaurus tore the inflated vertical columns to shreds releasing the air and thus the support causing the tent to majestically decend to the ground form whence it had risen, only this time there was a very disgruntled stegosaurus tramping about inside it. At this point I decided to abandon the test and go and convey my sympathies to George's wife (err, widow).

As for the SauruStore product, well it might work, if you are sure that you can properly prepare your pet with the polystyrene balls and sticky tape. If you are not sure that you can do this I would strongly surgest that you give the whole thing a miss and go on holiday in the winter while your pet is hibernating naturally.

Bert did eventually find his way out of the tattered ruins of the SauruStore and was happily munching cabbages in the corner of the garden when his owner came to collect him.

If you know of any products that you would like to see here or would like to add a review of your own then just mail our team at keeper@dinokeeper.com

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