Chocolate Monster

Doug was a bad dog yesterday.  He ate five individually wrapped Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  He did not eat five of the small Reese's Peanut Butter cups that come in a gold, foil wrapper.  He ate five of the large, flat peanut butter cups that come in the brown, paper lining.  Not only did he eat five peanut butter cups, but he also ate the five paper linings and one plastic wrapper.  By the time Chris and I arrived home, our living room rug was littered with orange pieces of trash, chocolate crumbs, and three peanut butter cups that Doug had not yet eaten.  Judging Doug's reaction to our presence, he knew that he was in trouble before we even walked through the door.

After thoroughly scolding Doug and waving the plastic trash in his face as evidence of his wrongdoing, I began to worry that he had consumed a toxic amount of chocolate.  I googled "chocolate poisoning in dogs" and read that one sign of chocolate poisoning is hyperactivity.  I looked at Doug and noted an abnormally high level of hyperactivity, even for a Jack Russell Terrier.  I also noted, however, that I would also be very hyperactive if I weighed only 20 pounds and consumed the amount of sugar contained in two and a half candy bars.  

I continued to read and discovered that Doug must eat five to six candy bars in order to consume a toxic amount of chocolate.  Phew.  There was no need to proceed to step two, which is stomach pumping and  would most certainly be an expensive measure.

I continued to read.  According to one website citing to veterinary experts, "eating a speck of chocolate leads a dog to crave more.  It can mean that your dog will jump at the opportunity to get any type of chocolate."  I blame the irresponsible person who owned Doug prior to me for feeding him chocolate, thereby sparking in him the insatiable craving for more chocolate, causing him to jump on my kitchen table and ravage the chocolate sitting there.