No, not a Halloween topic! Ranger gave me quite a scare today... He is okay now, but he ate something he shouldn't have - like an entire bag of Reese's peanut butter cups, foil and all. They were the "white chocolate" kind (which isn't really chocolate at all), so I probably completely over-reacted, but still...
I didn't have to work until later in the day today, but because the dogs refuse to let me sleep any later than 7:00am, I had a couple hours on my hands before I had to get ready for work. I cleaned out a couple cupboards in the kitchen and found a not-too-old bag of white chocolate Reese's peanut butter cups that I had never eaten, and instead of throwing them out decided to take them in to work for the staff (cause, you know, they love old chocolate). I left them out on the counter and went to take a shower. When I got out, Gwen was laying in the bedroom and I went to see where Ranger was (just cause that's how I do). He was in the living room showing a strange amount of interest in licking the rug. Once he saw me, he kind of gave me a weird look and lay down in that fake innocent "Who me? I didn't do anything wrong" kind of way that makes you immediately suspicious. Underneath him I found the empty zip-lock bag the candy had been in, one lone peanut butter cup pushed way back under the sofa, and NOTHING ELSE but damp carpet. Panic. Calls to work to tell them I am not going to be there on time (if at all), calls to my boss for the same, and most importantly a call to the emergency vet. They told me what I basically knew if I had stopped to think about it - that white chocolate isn't really chocolate and therefore not toxic, but that the amount of foil, sugar and peanut butter that Ranger had eaten probably wasn't too great for him. I asked her if I should give him hydrogen peroxide to make him throw up and she said that they really only recommend that in extreme emergency cases (it also apparently isn't great for their stomachs), but that I could bring him in if I wanted to and they could have him throw up, just to be safe. Or I could just watch him for vomiting, diarrhea, etc., etc., for the next two days.
So, I ended up taking him in because I figured however much it cost me to have him hork up the sugar-pb-foil was probably worth me not going into hysterics every time he burped. He felt absolutely fine and was thrilled to go for a car ride until he realized where we ended up. So, in the end, everything came up (the vet tech kindly not only shared with me that I would have been "horrified" by the amount of foil he barfed up, but also that their entire back area now smelled like "peanut butter and puke"). The staff at the emergency vet was very nice, even though I know in their heads they were thinking "OK, whatever freaky paranoid dog lady - we'll make him barf, it's your money. But you could also just watch TLC all day and check on him every once in a while" - hey, it was THEIR suggestion in the first place. Ranger has been sleeping off the effects of the vomit-y shot, and I have been cursing myself for being such a bad dog mom.
I swear, I never in a million years would have thought he would get up on the counter and take that whole bag of food. He hasn't stole food since, like, his second week with me, (when he stole an entire loaf of bread off a counter and proudly trotted out into the living room with it and jumped up on my lap to eat it, like "Hey, look what I got us!"). Still, I should have known. I suck.