Nick nack paddy whack, give your dog a ....wait. A processed synthetic bone shaped toy?

According to the Dogblog at Dogster.com, there are ten very good reasons not to give your dog a meat bone. I've long lived in a home with veterinarians who have forbidden our dogs to have bones, and when I tell people that, sometimes they say, "But dogs have always had bones," "they evolved eating bones," "if bones were bad for dogs, Old Mother Hubbard would have needed a different word to rhyme with 'bone.'" Granted, that person was seven years old.

So people, people, people, please heed this. No veterinarian likes having to open up a dog on a Sunday evening and root around for a bone he wasn't supposed to have. Okay, I may take a little grief over the term, 'root.' They have fancy x-ray and ultrasound machines to help them locate the precise location of an obstruction before they have to go in a root around for it. My point is, let's not make them do it.

Here is another link to Dogblog in case you missed the first one.  It's just that important.

Dog Toy of the Month

My wife went to a veterinary conference, and part of the fun of that is the huge exhibit hall they have with vendors of anything from antibiotics to x-ray machines. She collects brochures, business cards, pens, To-Do lists, and those red and white mints that don't quite satisfy your sweet tooth and only make your breath smell fresh for ninety seconds. She gets to watch videos of the latest in laser equipment and ultrasounds, and practice her polite smile that tells the salesperson, "No thanks, I'm not interested in hog castration tools today."

She also likes to find the latest in toys for our dog, Titus, while she's there. One year she brought home a set of purple toys made by Premier, which have lasted very well through vigorous chewing. But this year she found the best ever. It's called a Bouncy Bone, with a ball made of the indestructible purple rubber in the middle, and nylon ends. One of the nylon ends unscrews and you place a "gnawhide" disc on it and screw it back together. The disc is made of cornstarch and probably flavored like a steak dinner or one of your tennis shoes.

This is Titus enjoying his Bouncy Bone

[Dog Toy of the Month is a periodic feature of Aurora Boardealis and is not to be confused with Toy Dog of the Month, which will celebrate a tiny canine we have met.].