BS: the dog who sucked toads

Subject: BS: the dog who sucked toads
From: Alice
Date: 28 Oct 06 - 11:08 AM

Wild!

National Public Radio
Photos and Audio at this link:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6376594


The Dog Who Loved to Suck on Toads
by Laura Mirsch 

(Photo) An innocuous toad -- just don't hold it for too long.        Courtesy Mirsch Family        

(Photo)Lady's Addiction: Coming to terms with self-medication.        Courtesy Mirsch Family        
 
All Things Considered, October 24, 2006 · A dog may be man's best friend. But one dog, Lady, decided she needed more friends -- and she found plenty in the knot of toads living at the local pond. A suburban family's secret struggle with an uncommon addiction comes to light in this personal essay by NPR's Laura Mirsch.
Lady "was really perky, and happy, and generally excited to see you when you came in the door every day," recalls Andrew Mirsch.
But that was before the Mirsch family moved into a new house.
"We noticed Lady spending an awful lot of time down by the pond in our backyard," Laura Mirsch recalls.
Lady would wander the area, disoriented and withdrawn, soporific and glassy-eyed.
"Then, late one night after I'd put the dogs out, Lady wouldn't come in," Laura Mirsch says. "She finally staggered over to me from the cattails. She looked up at me, leaned her head over and opened her mouth like she was going to throw up, and out plopped this disgusting toad."
It turned out the toads were toxic -- and, if licked, the fluids on their skin provided a hallucinogenic effect.
What followed was the Mirsch family's quest to stop their cocker spaniel from indulging herself. But it wasn't easy. Lady was persistent, and resourceful.
The situation seemed to resolve itself when the toads went into hibernation for the winter.
But when they returned, so did Lady -- and with a vengeance.
"We couldn't keep our dog's addiction a secret any longer," Laura Mirsch says. "The neighbors all knew that Lady was a drug addict, and soon the other dogs weren't allowed to play with her."
In the end, Lady seems to have found a way to manage her problem.
"She seems to have outgrown the wild toad-obsessed years of her youth," Mirsch says, "and now only sucks on weekends."

Subject: RE: BS: the dog who sucked toads
From: bobad
Date: 28 Oct 06 - 11:22 AM

I had a dog who would try to chomp on toads but they expressed some sort of toxic substance which would make the dog salivate and foam at the mouth - an effect that the dog did not enjoy as she tried to shake it out and made faces until it wore off.

Subject: RE: BS: the dog who sucked toads
From: Jeri
Date: 28 Oct 06 - 11:27 AM

Don't bogart that bufo.
What kinda toads YOU been suckin'?!
Not THAT kind of 'hops'.

There's a hole in daddy's dog...

I'm just a dog on an amphibian high
Don't ask how, don't ask why
I'm chasin' purple polka-dotted cats
That fly around on the wings of bats
And I'm down here on the ground,
But not for long
Cuz I'm gonna go down to the pond tonight
Suck on a toad and get real tight
You just might think that ain't right
But it feels so good it
Can't
Be
Wrong.

And that's probably enough for now...

Subject: RE: BS: the dog who sucked toads
From: Alice
Date: 28 Oct 06 - 01:34 PM

good one, thanks, Jeri ;-)
"suck on a toad and get real tight" ha!

Subject: RE: BS: the dog who sucked toads
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Oct 06 - 02:39 PM

Brill, Jeri, more, more!LOL

Subject: RE: BS: the dog who sucked toads
From: number 6
Date: 28 Oct 06 - 02:43 PM

bobad .... once had an English Springer that did the same, and experienced the same.


biLL

Subject: RE: BS: the dog who sucked toads
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 28 Oct 06 - 10:31 PM

There are many different kinds of toads, with slightly different effects on dogs.

The common toads we have in my area cause a dog to foam at the mouth, gag and choke, and occasionally can kill a dog by suffocation. I've stuck a garden hose in a couple of dogs to help clear the toxin so the dog could resume breathing, and have never seen the same dog repeat any curiosity about these toads.

News reports from a decade or two ago have occasionally reported "fads" involving "toad licking" by people who claimed the psychedelic effect. The reports usually surfaced when someone "got the wrong kind of toad" and/or got an overdose - and died.

John

Subject: RE: BS: the dog who sucked toads
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Oct 06 - 01:22 PM

We have the poisonous kind here. I notice the dogs bark at them but leave them alone now.

Knock wood. . .

SRS