"Don't own pets unless you're convinced you can outsmart them."
Who can I give credit for that quote? ME
We only have two dogs and two cats. I've had pets all of my life. Wouldn't you think by now I'd have it all figured out?
Sure, there are times when everything goes smoothly.
Times when you think you have them outsmarted.
And then you realize you really don't.
Two days before Thanksgiving, I drove to Rochester to pick up Annie. We got home, and I left my toiletries bag on the bathroom floor, too tired to unpack it right away. The next night, we all went to see the new Hunger Games movie, leaving the dogs at home.
After the movie, we discovered a torn and now empty ziploc bag of Truvia sweetener on the bathroom floor. It had been packed with my cosmetics. Panicking, I called the vet and was told that Truvia is not toxic to dogs (Xylitol sweetener is). Phew!
On Thanksgiving morning, I let the dogs outside and noticed Halle had a very hard time walking. Her legs were stiff as boards. When she came back in, she wouldn't lay down. At about the same time, I noticed a few vitamins on the bathroom floor in the corner. I checked my bag, and they were not there. So in addition to the Truvia, a ziploc bag full of Vitamin D, Fish Oil and Magnesium supplements were gone!
Halle spent the next 24 hours at the emergency veterinary hospital where she was put given activated charcoal, put on an IV for fluids, and had blood work done multiple times. She also shit her guts out multiple times. When I picked her up, the bill was just shy of $1000, but she was fine.
I learned never to leave my toiletries bag on the floor again.
The Truvia must have tasted REALLY GOOD to Halle because since then she has eaten though a ziploc bag holding my sister's make-up, found and eaten a box of chocolate/mint candies my son didn't even know he had in his bedroom, and eated 6 Rescue Sleep supplements which she punched out of a foil case after removing the foil from a box:
She has also started going through garbage cans in search of tasty treats.
To avoid another major vet bill, or worse, a dead dog, I had to come up with something to keep her safe.
Closing doors isn't the answer, because our other dog, Sami, figured out how to open them when he wanted to get into Adams room to sleep with him at night.
So this is what I came up with.
I put a strong string on the inside lever of every bedroom door. I then put a screw into the door trim inside the bedroom. The string has a few loops tied onto the end so that it can be hooked around the screw. The opening is wide enough to get a hand through to get into the bedroom, but not wide enough for a dog to get through.
Now, even if Sami unlatches the door for Halle, she won't be able to get in!
I also put one on the door to the basement where the cat litter boxes are.
Because if the dogs are able to get to the litter boxes, they look like this (replacing the snow with cat litter):
and their breath smells really bad.
The cats - well - that's a story for another day!
