Pieka 1, Jaime O

Pieka took her first (and hopefully only) trip to the emergency clinic last night. Before you ask, she is just fine.

I made a homemade chocolate cake for Shane yesterday evening – with LOTS of dark chocolate and 100% cacao powder in it. The cake was cooling on the counter, the baby gate between the kitchen and dining room was closed but not fully latched (the child lock wasn’t engaged, but the flip latch was down), Pieka was happily enjoying a Kong in the living room. I was sitting at the computer where I can see both the puppy and the cake. Pieka bounced up, grabbed a glove off the dining room table, and flounced by waving it at me. You know, the “look what I’ve got” dance? She dropped it on the other side of the room and picked up a toy. I got up to get the glove. In the time it took me to walk back across the living and dining room (seconds), she had opened that baby gate and taken several HUGE gulps of the cake.

I’m no math whiz without a calculator, so I wasn’t sure how close she was to the lethal dose, but there was a LOT of chocolate in that cake. It was 18 degrees, with 30 mph wind gusts last night, so I wasn’t inclined to try and induce vomiting myself in the backyard. So off to the emergency clinic we went.

The good news is that she was quite the hit at the clinic. The staff said they’ve never seen a dog wag it’s tail while vomiting….and then try to give kisses and visit with folks in between bouts. Lovely, I’m sure, but I’m glad that Pieka saw it as a social event. She came out of the back with an entourage of adoring vet students.

Moral of the story:
1. My dog is smarter than me.
2. I should know better than to make homemade chocolate cake.