Holiday Cheer

Christine Keith has a very nice column in the San Francisco Chronicle outlining what we, as busy pet owners, should be aware of as the marathon of holidays approach. Hopefully everyone within your family came through fine for Halloween, now here are some tips for a Happy Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and other winter celebrations leading up to a great New Year.

• The increase of holiday parties can stress pets out, so giving them an option to hang out in a quiet room is often best, rather than encouraging them to mingle among the crowd.
  
• Too much holiday cheer in the form of unfamiliar foods can affect cats and dogs in not-so-cheerful ways. A little goes a long way when feeding pets fatty foods.
• We know that thawing meats on our counter top has risks, especially with cats. But Christine tells a story on how her dogs were able to get her thawing turkey out of sink and feast on it on the floor. That would not have been a good Thanksgiving for the people-part of the family!
• Especially watch the string that has tied the turkey together. Very dangerous to have that flavor absorbed by something that can knot and choke pretty much anywhere on, or in, the body.
• If you want to share a sweet with your dog, think about apple slices - apparently they love the taste and a little won't hurt them. I need to try this at home...
• If you have a real tree in the house, and a dog that might like lifting his leg on it, try surrounding it with inexpensive brass fireplace screens - Christine tried this and she said it looked nice as well as solved the problem.
• If your dog chomps down on a glass ornament, that's an immediate 911 call to your local emergency vet.