It was a warm, summer night in Georgia. Toads were calling out for their mates and cricketsong filled the air. The moon was just a sliver in the sky. An owl hooted off in the distance.

Our dog Dakota disappeared into the blackness for her bedtime potty. I leaned on the railing gazing upward. The sky was full of stars and the music of the night creatures was a symphony of joy. All the world was happy.

My peaceful bliss quickly evaporated when Dakota came bounding up the stairs in frantic agitation. She was foaming at the mouth, long threads of goo flapping as she shook her head in panic trying to rid herself of… what? She was pawing at her mouth. Spittle was flying everywhere. What had she gotten into?

My mind raced thru the possibilities. Some sort of poison? But our yard was fenced and there wasn’t any poison for her to get into. Had someone thrown something over the fence? Dakota was an indoor dog so there was no barking to disturb the neighbors, no reason for anyone to want to harm her. Had she eaten a poisonous plant? Doom filled my belly as the prospect of her sudden death became very real. I panicked.

Should I give her something to make her vomit? Oh lordy I’d read so many books, I should KNOW what would make her throw up. Mustard, I remembered reading something about mustard. But wasn’t it the powdered kind? Come on, think! Hurry up and think! Urgent! Do something or she’s going to die right here in your arms!

Tears came streaming down my face as I screamed for Bear, not knowing what to do for her. I loved her so much I couldn’t bear to lose her. She wasn’t even two years old. We should have at least a decade more to share together. Oh Dakota… my beloved Dakota…

Something pulled me from my panic. A glimpse of something, a clue, was she having trouble breathing? Maybe something was stuck in her throat?

I reached in and felt around and sure enough there was a smooth round object lodged in her throat. What the heck? And then it hit me, our yard was full of toads especially at night and she liked chasing after them. Maybe she’d tried to eat a toad and it got stuck in her throat.

I felt around hoping to grab a leg and pull it out but all I could feel was a smooth slimy surface that I couldn’t get ahold of. I must have pushed it farther down because she swallowed and it disappeared. The foam stopped. Her agitation calmed and suddenly she was my happy, healthy dog again.

We were lucky. Some toads are highly poisonous and dogs die every year from eating them. The Colorado River Toad (Bufo alvarius) found in the Southwest and the southern Cane Toad (Bufo marinus) are two highly toxic toads. The Cane Toad can be found in the South from Texas to Florida. Other toads are not as toxic but all toads are poisonous to some degree. A highly poisonous toad sitting in your dog’s water bowl can poison your dog, too.

Toads release a toxin thru their skin when they are threatened which can be highly poisonous for dogs. A toad poisoned dog will shake their head, drool, paw at their mouth and vomit. They may also have seizures and heart attacks and can die within fifteen minutes. Rinsing the mouth with water from a hose making sure your dog does NOT swallow the water will help flush some of the toad poison out but the dog should be taken to a vet immediately.

According to the Merck Veterinary Manual online, the mortality rate for a dog poisoned by a Cane Toad is 20-100% depending on the potency of that particular toad’s venom and how much was ingested. If it’s a mild poisoning your dog may simply vomit for several hours.

The moral of the story is to prevent your dog from contact with toads if at all possible. Try to teach your dog to avoid toads. Do not encourage your dog to play with toads. What appears fun in the moment could be deadly for your dog.

Tags: dog ate a toad, dog death, dog eats toad, dog foaming at the mouth, dog ingestion, dog poisoning, dog poisoning symptoms, dog poisons, dogs poison, dogs toads, eating toads, hazards to dogs, poison to dogs, poisonous dogs, poisonous for dogs, poisonous toads, symptoms of dog poisoning

Category: Dog Tails of Adventure

I was on my knees crying, candy scattered all around me while the Crewboys laughed. Every time I tried to get up they pushed me to the ground again. I was surrounded. Four boys and a girl had me pinned down. I didn’t stand a chance against them.

Across the street my cousin Abby stood frozen, watching in horror. Afraid to come and help lest they get her too, afraid to run home and leave me alone with them, Abby stood staring openmouthed in terror.

The Crewboys had been terrorizing us for months. We had to pass thru their territory to get to the candy store. If we were unlucky enough to be spotted the chase began, us running as fast as our eight year old legs could carry us, the Crewboys hot on our tails.

There were five of them, four brothers and a sister. The boys ranged from nine to thirteen years old. They had crew cuts, a rare sight when most boys had shaggy hair in honor of the Beatles. Hence the nickname “Crewboys”. The girl, Sarah, was fifteen. She was their leader.

Two little kids walking home with bags full of candy, Abby and I were easy targets for the Crewboy Gang and many a day had us gasping for air by the time we reached the safety of our block. The candy store was a lure we couldn’t resist. A quarter would fill a small bag with penny candy from the colorful candy jars at Pinky’s.

We had always managed to get home before the Crewboys caught us but our luck ran out on this ill-fated day. Abby was faster than I and in the lead as the Crewboys chased us. They caught me and pushed me to the ground. My bag of candy flew open and all the candy scattered in the street. I had hoped they just wanted the candy and would grab it and run but they had no interest in the candy. They wanted to bully me. That’s how they got their kicks.

Abby kept running until she was far enough away to escape them and then stopped to watch helplessly as they tormented me. The Crewboys towered over me with big feet ready for kicking. It wasn’t looking good.

Then out of nowhere came a tall, raven haired man with a long, lean face and piercing black eyes. He came charging in waving his arms and hollering like a madman and the Crewboys took off like the devil incarnate was after them. But he was no devil, he was my guardian angel straight from heaven come to save me from these neighborhood bullies. My hero helped me up and asked if I were okay and walked us safely home.

More than forty years later I still remember this man. I never knew his name or saw him again or even had a chance to thank him. But I remember him and in sharing our story, send him many thank you’s. His good deed never went forgotten.

What happened to the Crewboys? Abby’s big brother took care of them after that incident and they never bothered us again.

Tags: bullies, bully, bullying, bullys, childhood bullies, childhood bully, good deed, guardian angel, knight in shining armor, my hero, neighborhood bullies, neighborhood bully, random acts of kindness, to the rescue, white knight

Category: Pay It Forward

It was a glorious summer day with the sun shining brightly in a clear, blue sky. My cousin Abby and I were playing in a creek bed. We were six years old. The trickle of water that flowed gently over the smooth, round stones felt good against my bare feet. Birds chittered and chirped and the sound of faraway voices were merely a tinkle on the breeze. As long as our parents were “over there somewhere” they wouldn’t know that we were in the creek bed.

Suddenly a cloud passed over the sun, darkening it. The air took on an ominous heaviness. Abby and I looked up with foreboding. It was her father standing on the ridge up over our heads glowering down at us. Uncle Henry towered over the other adults and he stood at the front of the pack. My heart took off running though my feet were glued to the spot. Uh oh. We were in trouble again.

I grabbed Abby’s arm. “Let’s run!”

We ran about two yards when she pulled back. “No! It’ll be worse if we run!”

Uncle Henry was an frightful man. A giant of a man who could freeze you with one look. He knew how to twist your innards into excruciating knots with merely a stare. He knew how to strike terror into the hearts of wayward youngsters.

Many a time had we earned his wrath, giggling together as we hid outside while the sun sank down beyond the horizon and Uncle Henry called for us to come in. Sometimes we explored an empty field, one that housed a myriad of tiny toads. Catching toads was one of our favorite pastimes. But there was one small dilemma: the toad field was off-limits to us. It was a rule we blatantly ignored.

In the other direction was the nuthouse. An insane asylum that scared us even worse than Uncle Henry. The crazy people dressed all in white lunging at us as we walked past scared us so badly we never walked past it again. Looking back I realize there were no crazy people threatening us, just the staff having themselves a good laugh scaring a couple of little kids. It worked.

Abby and I were notorious for hiding out especially when we knew we were in trouble. Our favorite hidey hole was a tiny room that only a kid could get into. Abby’s bedroom closet had an unfinished attic at the back of it where Christmas decorations and doodads were stored. Behind the boxes of decorations down along the floor was a tunnel just big enough for Abby and I to scramble into. After a few feet the tunnel narrowed and we had to inch along on our bellies like snakes to continue onward. At the end of the tunnel was a room, a tiny room with pull string to turn the light bulb on.

Abby and I spent a lot of time hiding out in that little room, often to the sound of Uncle Henry’s voice bellowing in anger at our sudden disappearance. That room was our safe-house, the place no adult knew about or could get to.

Outside the hidey hole we knew we’d find Uncle Henry’s scowling face, ominous with its implication of dire consequences. It didn’t matter that he’d never actually DONE anything to be frightened of except for one whooping I heard Abby get. He still scared the dickens out of me. Why did he strike such utter terror in the hearts of us mischievous kids? I have no answer for that.

On the verge of adulthood I moved far away and I didn’t see Uncle Henry again. Years passed and Uncle Henry remained in my memory as this frightening personage, towering over us like an angry giant, striking abject terror into our young psyches.

When I saw him again many years later, I discovered a man with an incredible sense of humor and a ready smile. Not the formidable man of memory, but a man whose blue eyes twinkled in merriment as he described a little room he’d built over thirty years earlier, a room with tunnels leading into it and a light bulb which never seemed to burn out.

Tags: bedroom fort, crazy people, hidden room, hidey hole, ideas for playroom, insane asylum, kid playroom, kid's fort, kid's playhouse, kid's playroom, kid's room, kids play room, memories that last, nuthouse, play room, playhouse, playroom, precious memories, secret rooms

Category: Pay It Forward