In my office I have a packet of paper tacked to my cork board that has little over one hundred food and plant items that are toxic to dogs. Many of these items I didn’t know were toxic before I got Isabella even though I’ve had a dog in my life for more than a decade (did they not distribute this information in the past?)

When I first brought Izzie home, I reviewed this list and tried to remember this as much as possible and I am usually very careful with what I feed her. For instance, she has a horrible allergy to wheat, and if she eats anything containing it, she breaks out in hives and won’t stop biting herself where she flares up. I don’t feed her table scraps and I scold Adam whenever he feeds her from the table.

That being said, she IS a corgi, and they are well-know for their insatiable appetite and will do anything short of killing you to get a piece of food. Last night, I was finishing up a plate of Thai fried rice and pulled out a bunch of onions that I didn’t want to eat. I had to run to the restroom and left the plate out. From the back of the house, I could hear Izzie jump on the couch and audible gulp the remaining morsels from my dinner plate. No volume of screaming from the restroom would halt her in her food reverie and a few moments later she waltz into the bedroom licking the stay food particles from her lips.

It was then a race around the house trying to find out exactly how much onions were toxic to dogs and who I should contact at 10:30 at night in case it was going to be an emergency.

My first call was to the Animal Poison Control Line run by the ASPCA. After waiting on hold for a few minutes and giving them all my information on the incident, the operator then told me that it would be a charge of $65 before they could even give me advice. This wouldn’t count any time of actual emergency intervention, just advice.

I quickly hung up and dialed my veterinarian. Unsurprisingly, they were closed but gave me numbers to two 24-hour emergency animal hospitals in Brooklyn and I gave them a call. The first hospital was already dealing with an emergency but did tell me that I needed to get her attention soon. I called the second hospital and they too confirmed that she needed to throw up the onions. I could either give her hydrogen peroxide (not the stuff you use on your hair) or bring her to the hospital. I had none of the hydrogen peroxide at home and it would take probably 20 minutes to pick some up at the local CVS and even then it wouldn’t be a sure bet that she would actually vomit.

All the while I am freaking out running around the house, Izzie had since plopped herself down on the carpet and was already ready for bed. I decided to tell her we were going for a walk and quickly shuffled her to the car so I could speed down 4th Avenue to the animal hospital.

When she was finally seen by a technician, they alerted me that onions are particularly harmful to dogs because it causes anemia, which makes them lethargic and prevent oxygen from getting into their red blood cells. If she isn’t treated, the worst that could happen to her was that she would need a full blood transfusion otherwise she would die. Soon that $200 vet bill didn’t sound too bad.

They gave her an injection of a medication that would make her nauseous, but she was still quite stubborn before she gave up those onions! The process made her pretty loopy and I had to take turns with Adam to carry her back home from the car and she spent the rest of the evening curled up in her bed.

The Take-away

If you have fur-children, be sure to keep a list of toxic foods/plants in your house for reference and be careful what you have laying out that your pets could possibly get into.

Also keep an emergency veterinarian number in your mobile phone. And if there isn’t a 24-hour hospital in your area to call, at least get the ASPCA number in your phone, you might be out $65 for advice but better than burying your loved-one.

A lot of people know about how chocolate is toxic to dogs, but the reality is that most chocolate has a high milk content and dogs (depending on weight) need a LOT of chocolate in order to get to toxicity. Usually, chocolate is not as bad as you may think unless they decide to gorge on a pound of 85% cacao. Onions, and other surprising food items, are actually a lot worse.

For a list of toxic food and plants for your fur-child, download a copy of this list to keep around the house. http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/poison-control/plants/

When I moved away from college, of course I would miss my parents, but the hardest thing and the most that I missed was Lily. She couldn’t talk on the phone like my mom or come to visit like my dad would. Whenever I did go home during vacation times, I always felt that Lily held some kind of grudge over me like I had abandoned her. I was arguably the most attached to her whenever she was a puppy and was always eager to take care of her and do the “doggie” chores. I’m sure I probably over-state how she treated me when I got home because I am not sure dogs have resentment or complex feelings like that, and it was more likely it was my own guilt of leaving her behind. After a few days, she would likely come and cuddle back up with me and we’d be best friends again.

I’ll never forget the way she was always there for me whenever I went through my most trying times growing up, like heartbreak and my paralyzing loneliness that no human could have healed. Even with Isabella, my new dog, even though we’re best friends, I still don’t have that level of understanding and uncompromising loyalty that Lily displayed to me.

While I was home over Christmas, there was an evening where the whole family sat in the family and watched the movie “Inception.” For more reasons than one, that night was the nicest for me. We had a low-key Christmas and it wasn’t about the presents or whatever we were eating for dinner. We all had tough 2010s and needed to spend and do less over the vacation. That night Isabella was especially restless and was cranky over not being able to sit with me and Adam on the couch. I then relented and snuggled up on the floor on a blanket with her. Slowly Lily made a rare entrance and plopped herself down on the blanket on my other side and let me hold her. I wish I would have had someone take a quick snapshot of the setting because I’ll never forget this moment and when it happened I told myself to hold on to it because it might be the last time I saw Lily. It turned out that I was right.

When I got a message on my cell phone and then a message left for me on my work phone from my mother for me to call her right away, I knew immediately it was pertaining to Lily. She had been especially sick the past week and had stopped moving and eating. When my mom told me they had made the decision to put her to sleep, I started to bawl right in the office. Obviously, I knew it was coming, it was hard to not see what was coming, it just weighed on me so heavily that my best friend was leaving me and I couldn’t be with her to help her on her way and see her through.

So here’s to Lily, the best friend a woman could have, made of endless love.

I’ll see you at the Rainbow Bridge.

Lily and Rachel

Isabella and Adam in Grand Central Station

On Saturday, I made the brave decision to bring Izzie on the Metro-North and travel down to Grand Central Station for her first trip into the city of New York.

I was nervous to bring her on the train even though I’ve seen other puppy parents do it, plus it was the weekend when there would be noticeably fewer people traveling. However, Izzie gets territorial and protective over me, and it was no different this time and she barked and whined and many people who approached me on the platform.

She turned into an angel though whenever we got on the train. She immediately shut up and huddled close to my legs and sat on my feet. She was nervous but seemed to take the same approach to traveling on the train as she does when she’s in the car.

We pulled into Grand Central Station and exited the train to the platform. Everything was going quite well but then for some reason Izzie suddenly planted all four paws on the cement and refused to move even with my urging and leash tugging. I resorted to picking the poor girl up and carrying her to the main concourse. She briefly met with a new beagle friend as we walked up the stair cases to the outside.

The day wasn’t without some messes from the nervous dog, but I think she did remarkably well considering she is more of a suburban, almost farm suited, dog. We will be eventually moving to Brooklyn so really it was a matter of time before she would need to be exposed to crowds of people.

We met my fiancé, Adam at the New York Times building and made a pit stop at a local cup cake shop for an early birthday present! Our little family trekked down to the piers next to the Intrepid where we knew there was a small dog park. About a dozen or so dogs were in and out of the compound through the afternoon while we were there, and while we were hoping Izzie would be more social, after we took her leash off she was apparently quite content just sitting next to us in the shade. I felt like a mommy trying to get her reluctant child to go off and play with other children on the first day of kindergarten!

Adam attempted to get her to play in the kiddie pool that the town had set up for the dogs to play in but she would have none of that! She immediately jumped out and went back to chilling out in the shade. I couldn’t blame her, she seemed to be relaxing and enjoying herself. After more coaxing and a little more playing, we decided to start to head back to Westchester, but first stopped at the Shake Shack in Midtown that we had heard so much about! Luckily the lines weren’t took long and we were able to snag a small cup of soft serve ice cream that we shared (Izzie was particularly fond of the treat!) The trip back home was otherwise, luckily, uneventful and again Izzie was a perfect little angel on the train.

Mommy and daddy wrapped up the night by having dinner at a local Italian restaurant that was down the street from my place but in the two years I’ve lived in Elmsford, I had no clue it existed! We joked that it was better that we didn’t know about it, otherwise we would have been poor and fat from going to it often. When we got the menus we picked out appetizer and main courses but entertained the server when he asked us if we wanted to hear the specials. We were immediately awestruck at the specials offered and changed everything we had planned on ordering. Adam ordered a delicious duck that was roasted in, of all things, strawberries and strawberry sauce! We started with the crab cake and for my main course I tried the lemony swordfish. The night wrapped up with a huge slide of tiramisu that we couldn’t finish.

All in all a great way to ring in my birthday!

I really should have known better than to bring her outside. She’s notoriously bad in hot weather (who wouldn’t be in that much fur!), so much so that even on tame 70 degree days when we bring her to the dog park in White Plains, she’ll spend most of her time huddled by me under the cement bench in the shade.

I feel really bad for what happened next. We brought her home and hosed her off because she got a little messy and that helped with the heat. She spent the rest of the day in her cool, water soaked fur on the kitchen floor. When we left later for a drive-in up in Butler, I got a frantic text message from my sister stating “Izzie s*** all over the house.”

Wonderful.

It seemed that while we were enjoying the antics of the lively toys of Toy Story 3, my dog was leaving odorous presents around the house as my mom was falling asleep to the drone of prime-time television.

The situation didn’t get much better on Monday. We held off food as is usually suggested for vomiting and diarrhea and because she was starving, she sneaked into the drip pan left underneath the grill from the BBQ and promptly vomited a disgusting black ooze all over my mother’s kitchen floor.

Suffice it to say, we had to be careful with her. Once we got the vomiting under control, we were able to move her to a strictly boiled chicken and rice diet but that didn’t help much with what was coming out of her other end. I was finally able to take her to the Veterinarian and he tested her for Giardia (an intestinal parasite that can also be passed to humans) and said that otherwise she seemed okay but to keep her on chicken and rice and call him in a few days to tell him how she was doing.

Of course, Isabella didn’t complain about getting home-cooked meals every day. But, she still wasn’t and isn’t 100%. The Veterinarian confirmed that it wasn’t Giardia that was causing the problem so we most likely just had to wait it out. On Monday I trekked back to the Veterinarian because now he wants her on Prescription Diet/WD to help in the stool department. It’s been two weeks now since the original incident and only now is “everything” getting back to normal.

Feeling sick didn’t stop her from tearing up the bathroom waste bucket while I was gone, so I think she’ll be just fine.

Izzie 5 Weeks

My baby, Princess Isabella of Ascot, turns 2 today.

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been together for almost 2 years. Every day you look up to me to take care of you, feed you your favorite kibble, take you on long walks, and rub your belly and pat your head. There’s not much else you want from this world other than to feel loved and I’m here to give it!

Unfortunately, Izzie spent most of the day by herself because Adam and I had an engagement party to go to (or so we thought, we actually got the date wrong!) But when we got back, we fed her a special doggie version of a black and white cookie and her favorite treat, a tri-twisted bully stick.

She seemed to know it was a special day for her, every time she heard someone go by the apartment she would yell out, “It’s my birthday!” to anyone that would listen.

The following was found posted very low on a refrigerator door.

Dear Dogs and Cats: The dishes with the paw prints are yours and contain your food. The other dishes are mine and contain my food. Placing a paw print in the middle of my plate and food does not stake a claim for it becoming your food and dish, nor do I find that aesthetically pleasing in the slightest.

The stairway was not designed by NASCAR and is not a racetrack.. Racing me to the bottom is not the object. Tripping me doesn’t help because I fall faster than you can run.

I cannot buy anything bigger than a king sized bed. I am very sorry about this. Do not think I will continue sleeping on the couch to ensure your comfort, however. Dogs and cats can actually curl up in a ball when they sleep. It is not necessary to sleep perpendicular to each other, stretched out to the fullest extent possible. I also know that sticking tails straight out and having tongues hanging out on the other end to maximize space is nothing but sarcasm.

For the last time, there is no secret exit from the bathroom! If, by some miracle, I beat you there and manage to get the door shut, it is not necessary to claw, whine, meow, try to turn the knob or get your paw under the edge in an attempt to open the door. I must exit through the same door I entered. Also, I have been using the bathroom for years – canine/feline attendance is not required.

The proper order for kissing is: Kiss me first, then go smell the other dog or cat’s butt. I cannot stress this enough.

Finally, in fairness, dear pets, I have posted the following message on the front door:

TO ALL NON-PET OWNERS WHO VISIT AND LIKE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT OUR PETS:

(1) They live here. You don’t.
(2) If you don’t want their hair on your clothes, stay off the furniture. That’s why they call it ‘fur’-niture.
(3) I like my pets a lot better than I like most people.
(4) To you, they are animals. To me, they are adopted sons/daughters who are short, hairy, walk on all fours and don’t speak clearly.

Remember, dogs and cats are better than kids because they:
(1) eat less,
(2) don’t ask for money all the time,
(3) are easier to train,
(4) normally come when called,
(5) never ask to drive the car,
(6) don’t smoke or drink,
(7) don’t want to wear your clothes,
(8) don’t have to buy the latest fashions,
(9) don’t need a gazillion dollars for college and
(10) if they get pregnant, you can sell their children …

With it being so damn cold this winter, the thing about the bed hits close to home since Izzie has taken up jumping on the bed to sleep with me again. She, of course, demands the prime position on the bed, usually at the foot of the bed on MY side or crawls on to my lap to sleep. The other night we got into a growling match because I picked her up and moved her to the other side of the bed so I could stretch out. Um, dog! Who do you think gives you your food? It doesn’t just appear out of nowhere!

When the country as a whole already has severe problems with abandoned and forfeited dogs and cats, I am literally dumb founded how a progressive city like New York would put in such a ludicrous law that will make that problem worse and overwhelm the already struggling shelters and rescuers that work day and night to find and save abused and neglected animals.

The article cites that 113 dogs have been given up because of the ban. Of the 113, 49 dogs were euthanized either because of their illness, temperament or overcrowding of the shelter.

Those were 49 dogs that because of this ban were taken from loving homes and euthanized. Completely. Unnecessary. I find this to be completely unacceptable and disgusting. Why couldn’t those pets be grandfathered in? When Adam and I were looking at apartments and condos a few weekends ago in New York City a few places no longer allowed pets but we still saw a few running around who had been “grandfathered” in.

It’s more distressing to me because Pembroke Welsh Corgis, like my Isabella, are on average about 30lbs at their adult weight and she is 32lbs as of now. She is the sweetest angel and she would never bite anyone! I don’t know what I would do if I were faced with the horrible decision of either giving up my best friend or losing my home. Luckily, she came from a breeder and she can always go back there, but most dog owners don’t have that luxury.

It’s also distressing that the stereotype of pit bulls and other “bad” dogs are being singled out. Sure, the incidents of a pit bull attack are more common than other dog attacks but it’s the owners that choose whether to raise their dog as vicious or with bad behaviors, not the breed themselves. I’ve seen plenty of aggressive poodles over the years, but they aren’t singled out! There is a pit bull that lives in my complex and he is the sweetest little pup!

I’m hoping that with the complaints from the ASPCA and other human societies will help New York City either repeal and look at dogs on a case by case basis rather than a blanket law. However, I feel that most of the damage has already been done and those 49 dogs can’t be brought back.

I got Isabella from her breeder last June, so now Izzie and I have been best buds for more than a year now. She was due for her yearly checkup and rabies and parvo yearly vaccinations. I had told the vet that she has been bitten by a lot of ticks since we moved into our apartment and that I wanted the Lyme disease test done on her just in case.

The test he did checked for four tick borne diseases (ehrlichiosis, babesiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Lyme Disease.) After a few minutes (the test was to take at least 10) he already started to see in the test that it was coming up positive for anti-bodies responding to a A. phagocytophilum infection (part of the ehrlichiosis test.)

This bacteria causes lethargy and joint pain in the dog. Luckily, Izzie hasn’t shown any of those symptoms yet, but the vet said that if left untreated should could be put in a lot of pain over the years. Why do that to my best friend? The next step was either to watch and wait, do more blood work to see if it is indeed a large infection ($200-$300) or hit her with the antibiotics anyway ($30.) I think you already know which one I chose. I am not sure why my vet would even suggest more costly blood work when a simple, cheap, antibiotic will clear it right up. :-p

So, I throw in 1 1/2 pills into some peanut butter once a day for her and I’ll have to do it for a month. Hopefully, she’ll be A-OK. But now what am I supposed to do about the crazy amount of ticks around my apartment? I talked to some of the other dog owners in the apartment complex and they have all been complaining about the amount of ticks around. We all use a flea and tick treatment on our dogs but we still see them. One lady called up the manufacturer and complained and they responded that the treatment is 99.99% effective. If the dog is getting ticks it means that you have an INFESTATION of ticks in your complex. UGH.

I think I am going to have to formally complain to the management today and see that they spray around the entire complex and not just around your own apartment. Apparently they only spray bug killer if you request and only around your apartment not the whole complex. Too bad for us owners that walk our dogs all over the place!

A baby Izzie and Minty

When Isabella was a baby and i first brought her home, her breeder sent her off with a small mint-colored stuffed squeaky bear. We named him “Minty.” He immediately became Izzie’s favorite toy.

Before Isabella started to fill into her adult body, her baby bark was very shrill and could be heard through the whole house. My dad was the most irritated of all and would bark back at Izzie and tell her to stop.

Shamed, but not to be outdone, Izzie would grab Minty in her mouth and instead of barking, would squeeze Minty repeatedly from under the kitchen table. While we ate dinner all we heard was… “squeak squeak squeak squeak… squeak squeak!”

Unamused, but defeated, my father decided this irritation was better than broken ear drums.

The friendship lasted for months until Izzie had figured out how to rip the innards from Minty’s bowels and was sad to realize that he no longer squeaked. Being the good mommy I am, I went a-searching on the intar-webs and found a store online that sold these silly squeaker toys for under a dollar each. Not only that, but for each one you bought you got one for free.

Suffice it to say, I now have a large collection of “Mintys” for Izzie to play with.

Every few months she’ll get bored with just squeaking the damn thing and decides it’s time to play doctor. She’ll rip him apart and pull all the stuffing out and rip each stitch out like a trained professional.

Izzie and What's Left of Minty

Eventually, for the safety of her stomach (and my carpets) I’ll take his corpse and dispose of him in the nearest trash receptacle. I’ll wait a week or so later again, and then I am the hero once more when I “resurrect” Minty, all well and unscathed, for Izzie to squeak once more.

She runs down the hallway squeaking and giddy, gets to the bedroom and throws Minty into the air and catches him only to quickly tear into him and rip his poor little ear off. And the cycle continues…

What happens to me in an emergency?

Yes, it seems every stupid thing out in the world has its own holiday, but today’s “day” made me think.

I subscribe to the American Kennel Club newsletter and was alerted that today was “Pet Fire Safety Day.” What does it mean to have a Fire Safety Day? For humans, it’s easy. We teach kids to feel doors and door knobs to see if they are hot before you open a door and to crouch low when there is smoke, but how do we protect our fury friends who (as far as I can tell) are lost on the finer details of the English language.

I’ve thought about it before whenever I first moved into my own apartment almost a year ago. I’ve been good about keeping Isabella in the front room in her kennel so as to not let her wander around while I am gone until she is a bit older (she likes to chew on things and I have this fear she’s going to chew a wire and electrocute herself if left alone.) I also keep her leash right next to the door so I always know where it is, especially in the case of an emergency. I will now have to see about getting myself one of those nifty “Rescue Pets Inside!” stickers for my front window (I remember having something like that on my bedroom window when I was a kid.)

AKC.org posted a nice page on their website dealing with some of the helpful things owners can do.

• Extinguish Open Flames – Pets are generally curious and will investigate cooking appliances, candles, or even a fire in your fireplace. Ensure your pet is not left unattended around an open flame and make sure to thoroughly extinguish any open flame before leaving your home.
• Pet Proof the Home – Take a walk around your home and look for areas where pets might start fires inadvertently, such as the stove knobs, loose wires and other potential hazards.
• Secure Young Pets – Especially with young puppies, keep them confined away from potential fire-starting hazards when you are away from home.
• Keep Pets Near Entrances – When leaving pets home alone, keep them in areas or rooms near entrances where firefighters can easily find them.
• Practicing Escape Routes with Pets – Keep collars and leashes at the ready in case you have to evacuate quickly with your pet or firefighters need to rescue your pet.
• Affix a Pet Alert Window Cling – Write down the number of pets inside your house and attach the static cling to a front window. This critical information saves rescuers time when locating your pets. You can obtain a free window cling here or at AKC Responsible Dog Ownership Days events.
• Keep Your Information Updated – Firefighters are familiar with pet alert window clings so keep the number of pets listed on them updated. Knowing the accurate number of pets in the house aids rescuers in finding all of your pets.
• Use Monitored Smoke Detection Services – As an added layer of protection beyond battery-operated smoke alarms, smoke detectors connected to a monitoring center help save pets who can’t escape when left home alone.

Since I know many of the blogenning bloggers have dogs and/or cats, I thought this would be helpful information.