Uuuuugh.
Had a slight panic earlier this evening. iDJ was running the BBQ, so I didn’t have much to do but shuttle plates, when needed. I had sunshine for a bit so was out front soaking it in, but when the sun set behind the mountain, I moved to the back yard to be with hubby, his beloved Weber grill, his music, and the very annoying dog.
I expect the dog to be very annoying when we grill. 1: The amazing food smells 2: The hubby feeling guilty about subjecting her to amazing food smells and giving her a ton of treats (usually carrots – but she knows he’s a pushover and works it) 3: Hubby is in and out and in and out and she has to, has to! follow him everywhere.
The last is actually the most annoying factor. She’s an indoor dog, really only outside to do her business in the tiny-ass garden, and for walkies. As such, she’s never unsupervised. But she doesn’t really want to be outside – not unless daddy is outside too. I am not her favourite human, probably because my hands are not made of treats.
Anyway.
The food was nearly done, and I had one eye on the dog who was snuffling around my strawberry / raspberry patch. Hubby and I got talking and I noticed that Neko was near to us and still snuffling. Then she wandered away, and I spotted that something was missing.
There had been a little group of mushrooms in the grass, and now they were gone.
Ohshitohshitohshit.
Our food is cooked and getting drier by the minute, but we both rush to do what we can: me to find my fungi identification and Irish Wildlife books, and hubby to scour the back garden with a flashlight, tongs, and plastic bag for evidence collection. He also did Internet research to see what signs of trouble we should look for.
Neko seems perfectly fine. She ate normally, she’s sleeping normally, and I hear no sounds of intestinal distress (a sign we know well, with her). The thing is: this damn dog loves veggies. Carrots are her favourite treat. Radishes? NOM! The ends of celery, the trimmings of courgette (zucchini!), the rind of a watermelon? Yes, please, and thank you!
So, it really should have occurred to us that she might go grazing in our back garden. It has: but only to the point where we didn’t want her to realise that blueberries are awesome. Or raspberries. She’s already figured out tomatoes, dammit. We never thought she’d realise fungi could be edible…
Not sure if she’s dammed stupid, or dammed smart.
I had a bit of playtime with her, with the intention of sussing out her mental state.
She always splays her forelegs out like that, and yes, she always looks that pleadingly pathetic. No wonder hubby is the big sucker of the family.
That just does not look comfortable, mushroom-highor not.
heretherebespiders 
Aww Neko is gorgeous! Hope she’s okay. I’d be freaking too, though. Did you call the vet?
No, it was already nearly 10 at night so not much chance of medical help. But it’s been… 3 hours and she seems perfectly normal. She is a beauty, if kinda dumb 🙂
I think if something poisonous was happening, it would have happened by now. At least, I hope so!
Oh yes. I know when hubby got food poisoning it only took about an hour to hit him. That’s why I made sure to play with her, to see if her reaction times were off or if there were any other symptoms. It wouldn’t be out of the question for the fungi to be hallucinogenic! I can’t imagine a dog on acid… but I figured playtime would put her in a happy place if she was ‘tripping’.
She isn’t -just woke her up by calling her name, and since I didn’t have food, she laid right back down again. Perfectly normal 🙂
That is the sweetest thing I’ve heard! You tried to make sure she had a good trip, just in case the fungi was magic! Aww! 🙂
Ha! Well, part for her and part for us! She’s 36 kilos or 80lbs – not what you want as a house pet when off their rocker. Hell, her “good morning!” today nearly ruptured my left boob 🙂
Ouch! :0 It would seriously suck if a dog that size tripped wrong. I’ve never done it, but I think a dog that size caught in the delusion that you are her worst enemy is scary as hell. What a movie that could be… Bad Trip Dog 🙂
Yep! I already think she doesn’t like me very much, so I wanted to make sure she was okay, and in a good mood! It’s not her fault but mine that she’s not my biggest fan: she’s an Akita so I expected a challenge. But she’s the most submissive beta dog ever, so I scared the fur off of her, poor dear.
🙂 Poor Neko!
Yeah, I know. I stopped being such an alpha once I figured it out, but damage was done. On the positive side, when I ask for something there’s no hesitation. On the sad, sad, side she’s afraid to play with me. But, she loves Himself, and one of the cats, so I know she’s not unhappy.
I was just joking; we’ve talked about this before. Neko will be fine! She’ll slowly come around. You’re sweeter to her than you think, esp since you tried to give her a happy trip 🙂 Good night for now.
Oh I know, sorry if I got too serious! I’m to bed myself, thanks for the discussion, I did enjoy it!
You didn’t. I just didn’t want you to have to go over the Neko thing all over again and possibly feel bad about it. Past should stay in the past. I did too! We’ll have to do it again 🙂
Hope you got your food in the end! A nasty scare but it sounds like they were unmagical.
She looks so adorably silly! Good to know the mushrooms didnt do anything bad.
Neko is so gorgeous – they do look silly when they sprawl out and get that “It’s OK, right? OK?” look.
We have to closely watch Molly outdoors as she is something like a toddler who seems to put anything she sees in her mouth…can’t tell you how many times I’ve pulled slobbery junk out.
drives us nuts – can’t just kick over mushrooms anymore – we have scoop them and get them over the fence before she sees.
Yikes! We’ll continue to pluck ours too, just to be safe.
So your first thought was that maybe the dog was on a high. Tell me, is there anything you haven’t told me about your younger years? 🙂
Oh dear, there is TONS I haven’t told on here, hahahah. But the shrooms in question looked like the ‘Magic’ kind: and even if we don’t have cows pooping in our grass, there are cows very close by so it’s conceivable the spores carried here. Lets face it, any kind of poison is going to make you ‘high’ for a few minutes first. And pretty much every ‘high’ is a type of poison….
I have had my funny years, too. But you just taught me something. I had no idea there existed a link between mush and cows.
But I think we’ll have to continue this conversation in private 🙂