She is so rotten and food motivated it drives me nuts. Willis loves food too but we can leave things out and he could care less about them. With Bella we have to put everything away or she will eat it. We learned this very early on with her but sometimes we find ourselves "forgetting" and she will eat the entire dinner I prepared, the muffins I made for a sick friend, the meal I prepared for a new mom... The list just goes on.
Before the New Year I was packing up to go see my college roommate and ran in the basement to grab the laundry. Typically when I go in the basement Bella stands at the top of the stairs and waits. She is not allowed down there after she snuck down the one time and made a buffet out of the cat box. However, when I came back up she was not there. I was distracted and carrying laundry so I didn't really pay any attention. But after I put the laundry down and was in the kitchen (again she is usually by my side if I am in the kitchen) I noticed she was not around. That is when I went to the living room and saw the mess...
There she was hard at work eating a pack of Orbitz gum. I didn't really think much of it. I had left it on the counter and she grabbed it. It was fair game to her. I had opened it that morning and had a piece and there was one left in the pack so she ate 12 pieces in all. I cleaned up the little wrappers (luckily there was no gum on the carpet) and threw away the mess. Then, I went back to packing and enjoyed Bella's fresh minty breath. But then it hit me: I hope that was safe for her to eat. We were going away and I figured I would call the vet just to make sure she didn't need to be seen. Whenever my pets have an emergency it's always after hours or the weekend so I was better to check now than pay later.
I phoned the vet, told her what happened and immediately she wanted to know the artificial sweetener. Ummmm, I have no idea... Bella ate the package in to a million pieces so even if I wanted to find out I couldn't. She put me on hold checked it out and came back on. The artificial sweetener in Orbitz gum is lethal if dogs ingest. Of course it is! Just my luck... Ok, well what happens now? I was instructed to give Bella hydrogen peroxide and make her vomit. How on earth will I give this dog hydrogen peroxide?? I don't have children and do not have medicine droppers. But it hits me, I have a turkey baster. So there I am on the porch with a happy dog forcing hydrogen peroxide down her throat. She did not like it and she made a horrible face. Within two minutes she was vomiting and there they were, 12 pieces of Orbitz gum. Thank goodness I was home and she didn't digest the gum.
Bella is fine and was left unharmed by this incident. The lesson learned, no gum on the counter! In fact, nothing on the counter! Oh, and what was Willis doing while she was getting in to all this trouble? Just watching. Some tattle tale he is...
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