Oh my, tonight I'm feeling like the bad parent. Earlier this evening, Charles and I snuck around the back side of the garage with Charles growling like a mean, gnarling dog and jumped out frightening our sweet little General. All in good fun. I grabbed him up immediately and hugged and kissed on him as he realized we weren't the big dog.But earlier today I found a slew of cherry tomatoes on the vine and after I picked a few I gave one to General and then another and then another. He must have eaten 4-5. He seems to really like them. I realized this a few weeks ago when he found one that had fallen to the ground. He found it and devoured it immediately.
As I went to pick one more this evening and give it to General so that Charles could watch, Charles asked, "Aren't tomatoes poisonous to dogs." I said, "Nah." He's eaten them before.
Well low and behold I do a quick Google search with the keywords Dogs and Tomatoes and wouldn't you know the first 4 searches tell me what I now fear - Yes! They're poisonous. Okay, I didn't actually open the pages, because denial can save us somewhat, yes? Why the heck open them to find all the problems with feeding tomatoes to my precious General.
I'd prefer to live the Scarlett O'Hara quote: "I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow."
Oh, but didn't he look cute with that t'mater?
And since we're talking about tomatoes I thought I'd leave you with the lines of one of my favorite veggie tunes by the Blue Dogs.
There's nothin' in the world that I like better than
Bacon, lettuce and home grown tomatoes
Up in the morning and out in the garden
Lord get you a ripe one, don't get a hard 'un.
Plant 'em in the spring eat 'em in the summer,
All winter without 'em's a culinary bummer.
I forget all about the sweatin and the diggin
Every time I go out and pick me a big'un.
Home grown tomatoes, home grown tomatoes,
What'd life be without home grown Tomatoes,
There's only two things that money can't buy:
That's true love and home grown tomatoes . . .
6 comments:
Wow! Thanks for the heads up. I don't let my dogs eat anything other than dog treats or dog food but this is good to know.
What a great photo! And thanks for the heads up. I had NO IDEA that tomatoes were poisonous to dogs! Holy cow.
I'm *pretty* sure The Blue Dogs were just covering Guy Clark -- he wrote "Homegrown Tomatoes" back in the 70s.
Still love that picture of General -- poisonous or not!
Tim - Seriously?! You know the song?
According to this:
http://www.lacetoleather.com/fataltodogs.html
"Tomatoes (plant and fruit) contain tomatine, an alkaloid related to solanine. As the fruit ripens, the tomatine is metabolized. Therefore, ripe tomatoes are less likely to be problematic for animals."
So as long as they were ripe you should be fine.
Lucretia - Thanks so much for the comment. That makes me feel much better.
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