I HAVE AN ODD SCHEDULE these days, as I write my easy-reading Bible background books.
It has to do with grandkids and dogs.
Take Tuesday, for example. It was a three-dog night. But I was happy the dogs survived until night.
We have one dog, Buddy, a black lab. But we were dog-sitting my son’s two dogs while he was out of town. This took a little pressure off his wife who is nursing a month-old daughter. It’s tough enough to take care of a newborn baby by yourself. But it’s even tougher when you add two lively dogs to the mix – a black lab named Mosby and a Siberian Husky named Juneau.
I wrote all morning and into the afternoon that day, working in the Gospel of Luke. It was a productive morning – my best time for writing. In the mid-afternoon I had to leave for a short time to meet with my pastor at 3:15.
I left my wife sleeping because she had to work a 12-hour shift that night. She would get up at 5 o’clock and leave at 5:30 to head off to the hospital where she works as a nurse.
When I got home from the meeting at church, a little after 4 o’clock, I stepped from the garage into the kitchen. The house reeked of onions and garlic – both of which are toxic to dogs.
Before I left the house we had several large softball-size onions along with some garlic bulbs resting safely in a bowl in the kitchen on a shelf. The shelf was not high enough.
When I walked into the living room, I saw that the floor was littered with the remains of onions and garlic.
The dogs smelled funkier than normal.
I quickly picked up the onion and garlic remnants and threw them in the trash. Then I rushed upstairs to my computer to search the question “Can dogs eat onions and garlic?”
Which has an obvious answer.
Yes they can.
And did.
But is it safe?
I read with increasing horror until I got to the phrase “red blood cells explode.”
I read no more.
I woke up my nurse wife and said, “We’ve got a problem.”
She called our vet, who said if the dogs ate the onions and garlic less than one hour ago, we need to induce vomiting.
We could take all three dogs to the vet and pay the doctors $1 million. (People with pets know what I mean.)
Or we could force-feed them hydrogen peroxide.
You give them 3% hydrogen peroxide, 1 teaspoon (5 ml) per 10 pounds. These dogs range from about 40 to 60 pounds. If the dogs don’t vomit within 15 to 20 minutes, give them another dose.
We had enough hydrogen peroxide to treat a mouse.
My wife made a run to the store and came back with three bottles of hydrogen peroxide.
We took the dogs out in the backyard just as a wave of thunderstorms started to roll in. I could feel the first sprinkles began to fall, and I thought “Crap,” or something of that nature because we had to keep the dogs outside long enough for them to vomit.
One by one I held the jaws of a dog, noticing how large and sharp those teeth are, and remembering that I type on a keyboard for a living.
My wife jabbed a syringe down deep into the throat of each dog, and squirted it so hard that some of the hydrogen peroxide splashed out.
We started with Mosby because we figured she was the culprit.
She has a long and well-established history of seeking out anything that might possibly be edible. Juneau is not so picky. She eats dirt. I can confirm that now.
Mosby and Buddy both vomited within 15 minutes. Juneau did not. Juneau had to get a second dose. Then she vomited.
Neighbors were out in the backyard watching. I hope they were not videotaping.
When it came time for us to dig through the partially digested remains, like an archaeologist working in an ancient garbage dump, the neighbors decided to take their kids back inside.
Only one dog had anything inside that looked suspicious.
Mosby.
Three bulbs of garlic.
My wife left for work on time, at about 5:30.
A couple of hours later I fixed myself something to eat.
It was not Italian.
For more about the life of an easy-reading Bible reference writer
- What writers do when the book arrives
- Me: One writer’s to-do list
- My most persistent battle as a Christian writer
Blog subscribers who win books this week
- Don Evans
- Paula Taylor
I give away free books each week to randomly selected subscribers to my free blog and quarterly newsletter.
Winners get the option of choosing my new release: A Quick Guided Tour Through the Bible – among about half a dozen other titles.
Steve, your life is anything but dull! Thanks for sharing another great story.
Steve I made sauce yesterday — thanks for sharing!
The trashcan in my garage is working like a scented candle from Sicily.
Thanks Steve.
We’ve entered a new reality. But it’s good almost all of the time.