Safe partying for pets
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Holiday dangers for the animals in your life
The telephone brings unexpected news, an invitation to a family holiday party - but I must bring my poodle pup Wan-Wan along.
How kind! And I know Wan will be delighted. The dog might be tiny, but she’s a friendly little pup, a real party animal.
The minute we arrive at my hostess’s home, everyone, adults and children, cluster around her. As the centre of attention, Wan is one happy little dog.
I wander over to the buffet. The hostess has certainly ensured that every holiday treat you could ever wish to enjoy is on one of many tables.
I first see barbecued chicken wings, crispy pork skin, and those lovely grilled sausages with toothpicks holding bacon strips around them.
Oh my goodness! I think. Toothpicks! Just a few weeks ago, Wan swallowed a toothpick, so dangerous! And those chicken wings - so delicious but so fatty and so full of tiny bones.
I glance at Wan, but she’s still meeting-and-greeting, not so interested in fatty foods or toothpicks yet.
Then I look at the other tables. I see chocolate cakes and candies, grapes, nuts and dried fruits like raisins.
A huge bowl of eggnog, made of cream and spices and lots and lots of brandy, dominates a table in the centre of the room.
I’m sure the hostess has laid out more goodies, but all I can see is every kind of food you should never feed your dog during the holidays, nor even the rest of the year.
Grapes and raisins are no-nos with chemicals in them unhealthy for the canine body. Some dogs simply swallow nuts without chewing, a good way to block the throat. It’s not funny to give any animal an alcoholic beverage to drink - unless you want to kill it, and chocolate in any form is deadly to dogs and cats.
The entire room, in fact, is a minefield of everything dangerous to dogs and cats. On one side, the hostess has set up a beautiful Christmas tree absolutely dripping with shiny ornaments and blinking lights. She’s decorated the base of the tree with pots of bright red poinsettias.
Lights and ornaments are dangerous, of course, especially to animals wishing to bite them. The flowers are so beautiful – and so poisonous to any dog or cat trying to eat a petal.
My hostess, of course, hasn’t deliberately set up a danger zone for animals (although I’d worry about her two-year-old grandson, if anyone leaves him unsupervised), but I’m worried. Would anyone give Wan a piece of chocolate just in the holiday spirit?
As I clutch Wan’s leash closer to me, I realise I needn’t worry. One of the children turns to her mother and asks, “Mama, do we have any doggie treats in the house? There’s nothing on the tables that Wan can eat.”
