Dodger, Dodger.

On Monday, Ben went to Lowe's. He left the shed in the yard open (as we have done innumerable times in the 8 1/2 months we have lived here) and upon his return he discovered a mess. One of the dogs had torn up a bag of Ortho Maxx lawn pesticide (and likely ingested a portion of it). Not knowing which one(s) may be the culprit(s), I put it out of my mind for the time.

The following morning as Christopher and Jonathan were going to get on the bus, I realized that Jasmine and Crimson were with them, but not Dodger. I heard some noise from the utility room (with a doggy door where they spend the nights) so I opened the door to let him in. Boy, was he a sight for sore eyes. He was twitching and trembling and shaking so bad he could hardly stand, much less walk.

So I took him to work with me and gave him massive doses of subcutaneous fluids and methocarbamol. I looked up the toxicity signs associated with the active ingredient in the insecticide and he matched it perfectly. Even down to the seizures. He has had 2 total and both were stopped promptly with IV diazepam. He is better this evening than he has been yet, and hopefully will continue to a full recovery.

But were we surprised by what he did? Not really. Dodger has always been a "trash hound" and tears up and/or eats almost anything. It served as a good reminder, though, to either keep the shed closed or put all toxic things up high. Because we will not always be able to stop the kids or pets from doing potentially harmful things to themselves, we have to do our best to not put them in a situation where there is that possibility. Not if it can be prevented. Boys and animals: they keep us on our toes so life is never dull at the Dean house.