We live in an extremely animal-centric house...doona strewn dog beds are found in most rooms, under tables and in front of the hydronic heaters.
Every animal we’ve shared our lives has been a joy with their own unique characteristics but several have shared a fetish for eating totally inappropriate things. PB, my much loved and long departed black lab x almost died one January after cleaning out a kitchen bin containing left over Christmas plum pudding, flour and assorted out-of-date pantry dry goods. Squidge, a black oriental suffered from pica and obsessively ate wool, linen, and even rubber leading to several medical emergencies, substantial vet bills, much nerve strain and serious damage to clothes. As a puppy Lara, our standard poodle who died last year at 17, destroyed 9 pairs of glasses over one twelve month period and went on to eat silently and efficiently through successive car seat belts throughout her life...Mercedes belts and not inexpensive.
Our current team includes a rescue litter of 12 month old J. Russel X’s ...utterly gorgeous, loving little people but dedicated hunters and collectors like all terriers. Unfortunately they also seem to have inherited their predecessor’s fondness for chewing questionable items ...in this case small shiny objects like needles and pins. Much more worrying than seat belts...and absolutely lethal in a creative house where my work ‘in progress’ is never neatly confined to a dedicated work space.
Over past months we’ve had a couple of close shaves but managed to retrieve said items...however on the Wednesday night before Easter... at night, of course...Oona swallowed a sewing needle while sitting companionably on Charles’s knee. This despite my very best efforts to dog-proof the room before inviting them to join us...I’d carefully vacuumed, obsessively pulled out cushions before getting down on my knees and running a magnet, then a clothes brush over the slate and the rug. Where she’d found it remains a mystery but luckily there is an excellent Pet Emergency centre fairly close by and so at 11pm there we were sitting and waiting for results of Oonas x-ray.
Major surgery was judged the best option so there was nothing else to do but go home to wait for the results...happily around 4am the call came telling us she was fine. Another very costly adventure but other than being kept apart from her rough housing brothers for 10 days Oona is recovering well...I just wish she could make the link her enforced holiday in hospital, her rather tender tummy and the momentary pleasure of chewing on sharp shiny objects.
