Rhododendrons are poisonous to dogs!

Just in case you didn't know...Rhododendrons are poisonous to dogs...the leaves are the worst, but the blooms are bad too. We found out via personal experience. Amber saw a commercial for Greenhurst Nursery a couple weekends ago...and wanted to go. No problem. We left there with FOUR beautiful Rhoddys...all in different colors. We planted them and within a couple days had our first bloom on one of them.

The "boys" didn't seem to bother the plants. YEA! However, when Humphrey saw that first bloom, I think he was dying to taste it! These boys put everything in their mouths! EVERYTHING! Toddlers I tell ya! Anyway, they got the opportunity to be alone in the back yard for "just long enough"...which wasn't very long at all...and Humphrey managed to eat almost the entire bloom. We didn't however notice (it was on the back of the plant) until he started throwing up beautiful purple puke. Sick, I know, but necessary to tell you...as it was VERY pretty BEFORE he ate it.

The vet said she'd like to give him the once over, since he'd probably puked out everything already...(seriously like probably 10 times or more)...but that it causes cardiac problems and can mess with the liver and kidney functions...so off to the vet we go. He stayed all day. His ALT levels are up (which so are Tommy's---we found out when he got fixed last month) which is a red flag for Liver Disease... so they both have appointments in June to get more blood work.

Humphrey seemed to get through it fine, however it's scary, because you don't know what that poison is going to do to their little systems and they are still indeed PUPPIES...

We knew that we might have to get rid of them, if Humphrey couldn't stay away from them, but we decided that we'd watch and make sure they didn't get into them again. They are almost NEVER unsupervised, as they are little "followers" and follow all of us EVERYWHERE.

But alas...although Humphrey stayed away...little brother didn't. Tommy set out to potty, managed to get side tracked and when mommy realized (that's me) that he was AWOL from the living room...I found him swallowing something. My first thought? "The Rhoddys"....sure enough, another New Red Bloom was devoured. I was a wreck. Called the Vet, and by the time she told me to give him a TEASPOON of Hydrogen Peroxide...he'd already started puking...I'll tell you they make them vomit almost instantly. So we got about 1/2 a teaspoon down the little guys throat, and within almost a minute, he was going at it again....meanwhile, while Mommy's cleaning up...Daddy is digging up Rhoddys...so sad! Almost $200 in gorgeous blooming plants...must go! I called my friend Carrie (who doesn't have any dogs) to come get them...and that they needed to be planted right away...I was bawling...for every reason you could think of. She jumped in her car, and came right over...Thanks Carrie! They now have a good home.

Needless to say, the boys are doing ok. But please make a MAJOR note that these plants are NOT good to have when you have dogs!