Canine 9-1-1

If only James Herriot lived in the neighborhood I could have called him and he could have treated our golden retriever, Emma, and also gotten a good chapter for a new book!

But, it seems I was on my own this afternoon! It went down like this: I had run to the store and been gone about 30 minutes. Upon my return I noticed several strange things. First in my bathroom I noticed a guest soap wrapper on the floor, and then there on the bathroom rug were several bits of soap "crumbs." As Emma likes to go into my bathroom and lay next to the tub, I thought "stupid dog, why are you eating soap?!"

Then not five minutes later I go into the living room and notice another torn up wrapper of some sort. I'm blaming the Beave for leaving a microwave popcorn bag out but then on closer inspection I see that it is something entirely different . . . and then with horror I see a half-eaten "Ready-Start" fire log on the carpet. OMIGOSH! Alarms are going off in my head. If that doesn't beat all . . . Well, it hasn't been that long, but I am sure that that log is loaded with toxins, so we've got to get it out of her.

I go to my old standby home remedy given to me by a veterinarian I called when Emma had eaten an entire bag of Dove Chocolate. That is the hydrogen peroxide bring-it-up-chuck mixture of 1 part hydrogen peroxide to 1 part water, and for a dog Emma's size about 1/3 cup should do it. Trust me though, easier said than done. Note to self: get some disposable plastic medicine syringes and keep them on hand.

With the Beave's help we got enough of the mixture down Emma's throat to do the job. Ten minutes later, a frothy mixture (remember that bar of soap she had was in there too) along with lumps of fire starter log all made its way back up and out. What a relief!!

So if you have pets please keep those easy start logs where they can't get to them. It must be the hickory BBQ like aroma that convinced Emma it would make a nice snack. Though I can't really figure out the soap chaser, unless she was just feeling funky. No I'm at a loss why she would go there, but I guess I'm really going to have to "dog-proof" my home.