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Nadia Amor, 26, Diamond Creek, Vic
These smell lovely, I thought. I was baking my hubby’s favourite cupcakes as a birthday treat. My two dogs, Annabel, three, and Bowser, two, watched curiously as I stirred the mixture.
I took the dogs for a walk while the 10 mini cakes were cooking. As I put them onto the bench to cool in their individual silicone cases, two pairs of eyes looked on. ‘These aren’t for you!’ I laughed at my cheeky pups.
‘Where have the cupcakes gone?’ I asked them sternly.
Around
10 minutes later, my husband Andrew, 28, came home from work.
‘I’ve baked your birthday cupcakes,’ I told him when I greeted him at the door.
‘Sounds great!’ he smiled.
But as we went into the kitchen I saw the bench was empty and there were just two empty cases
on the floor. Annabel, a labrador, and Bowser, an American staffy-cross, were sitting innocently.
‘Where have the cupcakes gone?’ I asked them sternly. It was hard to believe they could have eaten them so quickly. I half-wondered if my mum Agata, 54, or sister Julia, 25, who we live with, had put them somewhere else. But when I crouched down next to Bowser, I could smell vanilla on his breath! ‘Bowser’s eaten them,’ I said. ‘But where are the rest of the cases?’ To my horror, they were nowhere to be seen. He must have swallowed them too
I grabbed my phone and called a local vet. When I explained what happened, they said I needed to bring Bowser in straight away. My mum heard the commotion and said she’d come with me. So we ushered Bowser outside and into the car.
Usually, Bowser gets anxious in the car. He whines and stays down low, but on this trip he was jumping around trying to stick his head out of the window. He was having the time of his life!
‘It must be the cupcakes,’ I said. ‘He’s on a sugar high!’ It was a relief to see that he wasn’t in any pain.
When we arrived at the vet clinic, they told me Bowser was an unusual case. ‘We’re used to dogs eating chocolate and other food that’s bad for them, but this is the first time we’ve had a dog eat silicone!’ she said.
As they gave him something to make him vomit, I felt so sorry for my poor dog. He just wanted a tasty treat! I thought.
Luckily, the treatment worked quickly and he brought up the eight cases without too much fuss. I was astounded to see he’d even eaten some of them whole!
‘Thank goodness he didn’t choke,’ I said.
Bowser was quickly back to his old self, but we’ll be keeping a very close eye on him from now on.
Originally published in that’s life! Issue 20, 2016.
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