He'll eat anything.

This post is dedicated to gardeners that have pets. Our pups, Buddy to the left and Stella to the right, often spend a lot of time with us while we garden. The pups are not allowed in the garden for more than one reason. First, they tend to chase after each other going about 30 mph and they can leave quite a trail of destruction behind them. Secondly, I need to make sure they don't ingest plants or vegetables that are harmful to them. We all know the typical plants and vegetables that are harmful to many pets such as onions, chives, shallots, rhubarb, garlic, certain mushrooms, Hyacinth, Daffodils, Narcissus, Hollyhock, Lily of the Valley, Iris and the list goes on and on. But most recently my husband and I were considering growing our own hops for our homebrews. Turns out hops are extremely poisonous to dogs. Once ingested, they cause a sort of reverse hypothermia which results in death. My instincts and experience told me to do a bit of research before buying the plants and I'm glad I did. You see...we have had several costly lessons on puppyhood.... By the time our dear little Buddy was 1 1/2 years old, he had ingested a digital camera, a $100 pair of leather shoes, a cell phone, pieces of an electric blanket, and rocks, among other things. In one instance he got a piece of metal from the electric blanket and a bone fragment (from who knows where) lodged in his intestines. They had to be surgically removed and we all know vet bills are never cheap.....$1,200 dollars later he was fine. In another instance we have no idea what he ate but he became very ill and had convulsions. We suspect he ate some mushrooms from the yard but we never knew for sure. Buddy has gotten better about eating everything in sight...but I still watch him closely. Stella is rather picky about what she eats... her only downfall appears to be that she is constantly stealing Buddy's pillow :)

There are of course many plants that are also poisonous to cats. But luckily for us our cats (to the left is Spud and to the right is a neighbor cat) are finicky...they turn their noses up to most anything except cat food and love apparently. (Photo by Daisy Girl)