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Compost with Lipstick and Chocolate on the Side
By Dog Lover | May 19, 2009
I’m sure most of you have suffered through the puppy phase where they will basically chew on anything that they can get their mouth around. Of course there are the typical favorites like shoes and the legs of kitchen stairs. Our Australian Shepherd, Mittsy wasn’t much different in the early days. This chewing phase lasted about 8 months.
Although the furniture in the house and our shoes seemed to be safe after that initial period, even the use of a standard pet gate to keep mittsy confined while we were away, wasn’t enough to curb her appetite for new taste experiences.
I have to believe that Mittsy’s stomach was stronger than most dogs, because many of the things that she wolfed down are considered very dangerous to the health of a dog.
We were terrified for her the first time this happened, and it has happened several times since then. On her first Easter weekend with us, she managed to find our children’s cache of left over chocolate Easter eggs. Mittsy devoured as many as she could, wrapper and all.
The stomach pains she would experience would last about a day and then she would be back on the hunt to see if there was anymore of this glorious food to be found.
With Easter out of the way Mittsy needed something more along the lines of a regularly available gourmet meal. With a house full of teen-aged girls there was always one tasty treat that Mittsy could always easily get her paws on. Who would have believed that lipstick would become a favorite.
Unfortunately a regular chore around our house was removing red lipstick stains from beige carpets. We went through periods where we remembered to put up the pet gate, but whenever we forgot, the red streaks would be there to remind us.
Our biggest surprise however, was yet to come.
One long August week-end our whole family (including Mittsy) was invited to a friend’s cottage. It was a great cottage on a beautiful lake. There were several country acres for the dogs (Mittsy and two others) to roam about in. The dogs were having a great time together.
As usual, the weekend was a smashing success with beautiful sunny days, warm water and great company. Unfortunately it came time to start packing up for home. I guess the act of packing was some sort of sign to Mittsy that she had better feed up for the long trip home.
The first course was a rare find for Mittsy, a full French loaf. The tradition for the weekend was always to have the departing meal to be an Italian feast. One of the families had brought the french loaf and had left it sitting on their bedroom night table. Unfortunately Mittsy was now ready for the entree.
At one point during the day, I had gone into the cottage to look for some water toys for the kids. As I passed by the kitchen window overlooking the back yard of the cottage, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Mittsy was chowing down in the cottage compost heap.
Not long after pulling Mittsy away from her feast, she became very ill. Go figure!!! Soon she was unable to lift her head off of the ground where she lay. Each breath she took came out as steam even though it was 90 degrees outside that day.
This cottage was in the middle of nowhere, so we would need to travel for four hours to get to the nearest vet. We decided to make a run for it and so said our goodbyes and jumped in the car. My wife drove and I sat with a blanket on my lap and Mittsy laying on the blanket.
She was sick at least a half dozen times before we got home. It was the most unpleasant trip our family has ever experienced.
By the time we got home, Mittsy had somehow totally recovered and as soon as we opened the car door, she was off on a run wanting to play in the yard. She was off her normal diet for a couple of days, but no more than that.
We watched her closely, made sure she had lots of fresh water to drink and marveled at the dog with the iron gut. It was like she was saying to us “I told you I could eat anything”.
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