You can’t leave the room when this chewing machine is visiting

Our grandcritter, Bear, has been staying with us for the past few weeks. In hindsight, it seemed like a logical decision reached by mutual agreement. Scotty would go back to school and concentrate on all the end of semester papers, projects and finals that he had, and Bear would stay with us.

Did I mention that Bear is a lab? He is a beautiful dog, sweet and loving. He is also a chewing machine.

There is no limit to what he will eat or chew. He has toys, old shoes and ropes tied in knots, but these lay unused. Why chew on a toy shaped like a duck when you can munch on a remote control?

We have baby gated the entire house and moved everything as high as we can, but still he finds a way. Nothing in the house is safe; nothing in the backyard either. He has chewed on my coffee table, plants, books, magazines, the mail, the actual deck, the kitchen cabinet door and my purse strap.

If he is quiet, you have to go see what he is up to. If he is noisy, you are probably trying to take something away from him. So the other morning when he was asleep, I thought it was safe to go to the bathroom for a few minutes.

I came back into the living room to find Bear chewing on a big bottle of ibuprofen. He had reached up past the bread on the kitchen counter and found the bottle — and in the course of the 2 minutes that I was gone had gnawed it to bits — little pills scattered on the floor.

I started to clean up the mess and then got to wondering if he had ingested any pills and if it was a big deal. A quick Google check and I was in the car, racing up to Warner Robins Animal Hospital.

Dr. Kenneth Dorough and Dr. Matt Summers were in the lobby when I got there. I am not sure the office was officially open yet, but Dr. Summers took Bear back right away. There are some concerns about dogs and ibuprofen that are not good, so Bear had to hang out for a couple of hours while the staff waited on the contents of his stomach to reappear.

I can not say enough about the professionalism of the entire staff. They took excellent care of Bear — and me since I was a little nutty hysterical when I arrived with our 60-pound baby. I was especially appreciative since Bear is not their regular patient. Dr. Dorough assured me emergencies were part of their services.

Bear came home with some medicine to help with the next few days and Dr. Dorough told me that labs only chew on everything for about 15 years, which was comforting until I actually thought it through.

This was the second emergency trip to the vet because of something Bear had eaten. If you are babysitting or actually own a lab, or any other pet for that matter, and need vet services after hours, we are so fortunate to have Middle Georgia Veterinary Emergency Clinic, which is open from 6 p.m to 8 a.m. Monday through Thursday, with extended hours on the weekends. During the day, if you don’t have a regular vet or, like us, have a critter visiting, I cannot recommend Dr. Summers and Dr. Dorough enough.

Later that day, I was at the park taking Bear for a walk and stopped to chat with an older couple. They mentioned they had a chocolate lab and were very sympathetic about Bear’s adventures that morning having had plenty of the same experiences with their dog chewing and eating everything in sight.

Again, I felt comforted until I mentioned that Bear wasn’t actually my dog, he was Scotty’s.

The couple just laughed. Seemed their son had gotten a chocolate lab while he was in college too. With school, job hunting, moving and apartment no pet policies, the dog had just ended up living with them, still chewing his way through their home and their hearts.

I would have taken some ibuprofen when I got home from my walk, but I didn’t have any.

Alline Kent can be contacted at allinekent@cox.net.

This story was originally published April 27, 2018 at 7:52 PM with the headline "You can’t leave the room when this chewing machine is visiting."