Tuesday, July 4, 2006

The adventures of Tess Part 1

I could probably write a book about my dog. Most of the time she is a typical dog - loves going on walks, loves being pet by her humans and loves sleeping. But every once and a while she does something to push us over the edge. If you remember, a number of weeks back she pulled an entire bowl of spare ribs off of our counter and ate it - which inevitably resulted in 2-3 days of a sick doggie at our expense. A few weeks before that she had doggie blisters on her paws (our fault) and had to be carried up and down our apartment stairs at least 3 times a day and could barely walk around the apartment for a while. Well, the puppy is at it again. For those of you that are dog lovers, you're gonna love this.

This past Friday, Shawn and I were going out to the movies to see Superman with some friends. Before that, we went to the store and got some Tri-tip for sandwiches on Saturday. We went to Albertson's - which always has a bbq on the weekends and they make the BEST tri-tip that you can purchase already cooked. So we bought a small piece, enough for about 4 generous portion sandwiches over the next few days. Since the meat had just come off the bbq, it needed to sit on the counter to cool off. (Can you see where this is going?) So, Shawn and I had to stop by the movie theater in the afternoon for the movie that night just so we had tickets in case they sold out. After going to the store and coming home, and leaving the meat on the counter to cool, we were off to the movies. We got back about 30 minutes later and come home to meat juice on the carpet and no tri-tip. Yes, that's right - the damn dog took it off the counter and ate THE WHOLE THING. This wouldn't have been that big of a deal, except when the person at the store was packing it up, I asked them to put some sauteed onions in the container with the meat (I liked cooked onions on my tri-tip sandwiches). Yes, that's right folks - my dog ate onions. Onions are toxic to dogs!!!! So, by the time we got home, Tess had eaten the whole tri-tip and ALL of the onions. I totally freaked out. I had Shawn look up our vets phone number, but they were unable to help. We had to call the Animal Poison Control Center (I had no idea such a thing existed - but it does). So I get on the phone and ask them about the onions - and they kindly let me know that there is going to be a $55 dollar charge to talk to a licensed vet. That's right folks - the damn dog got the meat - AND $55 dollars of my money - all because she is a total freak. Now, don't get me wrong - I love this dog and would do almost anything for her - but this made me mad. I finally get a vet on the phone and they told us to induce vomiting because she could pretty much die from ingesting the onions (if you have time, check out what onions do to a dogs system - it's pretty nasty). So, we give the dog 4 tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide (please don't try this without the advice of a vet because this amount of peroxide was determined by the vet for Tess' weight and breed) mixed with some frozen yogurt (the dog LOVES frozen yogurt - but I will leave that for another post). She lops that up and we wait. It takes about 10 minutes for her to start puking - but finally she throws up EVERYTHING. I then had to put on some gloves (2 layers) and, get this, dig through the 'stuff' to make sure that she puked up most of the onions. That's right folks, I was on my hands and knees digging through doggie puke to make sure that she got everything out so she wouldn't be - and excuse my pun here - sick as a dog. The poor thing puked like 5 times - but it was all worth it because she is fine. No sickness - nothing! Thank God for the Animal Poison Control - otherwise it would have been touch and go for the next 3-5 days or so (that's how long it takes for onion poisoning to take effect - and let me tell you, the effects are nasty and could potentially be deadly). Life lesson (yet again) - DO NOT LEAVE FOOD ON THE COUNTER - FOR IF IT IS WITHIN TESS' REACH - SHE WILL BE SURE TO EAT IT!!!!!

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