Your Dog Ate What?? A Guide to Edible Hazards

In my debut novel, What the Dog Ate, there's a lotta mischief going on. In fact, in the first sentence, we find out that both Maggie's dog and hubby have been up to mischief: "The vet handed Maggie Baxter a plastic specimen bag containing a pair of size-tiny lavender thong panties extracted from her dog; but they were not hers."

"Panties. Yum!"

When you write a book about a Lab with a "the-world-is-my-smorgasbord" attitude, folks tell you stories about the odd things their pets have eaten. (Note that all these dogs ended up being fine!) Like the dog that ate the zipper on his bed. The zipper! Or a friend's cat that ate the prescription pill her husband dropped. (I thought it was impossible to get a cat to take a pill??)

Or there was my friend whose Lab pulled a hot pan of brownies cooling at the back of the stove down for a taste test. He broke the glass dish and started wolfing down the brownies! He was fine in the end, but she was worried about all the chocolate he ate, not to mention that he might have eaten some broken glass.

Because all of these stories required trips to the vet, it's definitely a good idea to consider pet insurance! Our dogs have never eaten anything too odd, but still we have Rita insured with PetPlan. [Luckily we have not needed to use it. Knock on wood!]

I like that PetPlan sends out newsletters with helpful tips for pet parents. 

Their latest offering is the Eat This, Not That primer on edible hazards for your pets. It includes some funny tales (with happy endings!) of odd things pets have eaten, and lots of good info on everything from human foods that dogs can't eat, to household and seasonal hazards, as well as tips on what to look for if your pet has practiced dietary indiscretion.

I think it would be especially helpful to share with anyone you know who might be new to pet ownership. And it's worth checking out for the cute graphics, photos and interesting stories alone! PetPlan asked if I had a story of our pups eating something odd to contribute, but luckily I didn't!

How about you? Has your dog ever eaten anything weird? (If so, I hope everything turned out okay!!)

Oh, and if you haven't read What the Dog Ate, the ebook will be on sale for 99 cents from this Friday until 10/31!

Note: I was not in any way compensated for writing this post. I just wanted to share some helpful info.

Thanks to Snoopy’s Dog Blog, Alfie’s Blog, and My Brown Newfies for hosting Monday Mischief!