The Starfish Fiasco

Image courtesy Microsoft Clip Art Gallery

Looking at the bookshelves in the family room last night and thinking about bringing back the seashells for spring/summer I remembered the starfish incident of last spring. The memories......


After I got the family room somewhat together I wanted to accessorize the bookshelves. So I went to Michael's and got a big bag of seashells. I arranged some of the bigger seashells and starfish on the shelves and in vases. After arranging and rearranging I figured out the perfect arrangement.

Two days later while Derek was out of town I came home from work to find a single vase lying empty on the floor under the bookshelf.....

So I thought,"I wonder what was in there.....there are the big seashells, the coral...where are the starfish?"

I swung around and saw the perpetrators trying to look innocent-

The Eater

The Hider

Winter is a hider so I frantically searched all her favorite hiding places: in the couch, in her bed, under our bed, in clean laundry....no starfish.

Jack will eat anything....so I called the vet.

J: Hi, Could I speak to the vet, I think my dog might have just ingested a starfish.
Receptionist: A what?
J: A starfish, you know like an animal some people use for decoration?
Receptionist: Okay..................hold on
Vet: Jack ate what?
J: A starfish
Vet: Like a ceramic statue?
J: No like a animal
Vet: How did he get a starfish in Kansas?
J: It is a dried dead one, it was on a shelf for decoration
Vet: You decorate with starfish?
J: And seashells, it is actually very in right now so I am surprised Jack is your first patient with this problem
Vet: First time I heard it (insinuating I am a weirdo for using dead animals for decoration)...anyway how big was it?
J: About 7 inches across.
Vet: Did he eat a piece of it or the whole thing?
J: I can't find any of it so either it is hidden very well or he ate the whole thing....but he is acting fine
Vet: Bring him in just to check. Sure it was him and not Winter?
J: Winter is a priss and will barely eat her food. If it was her, she would have hidden it and not eaten it.

So at 5 o'clock on a Tuesday I am loading Jack in the car, causing Winter great stress that she wasn't going also, and then sitting in traffic to get to the vet's before they leave.

$200 and a stomach x-ray later Jack gets a clean bill of health .

No more starfish in our house.

In December I was putting on my snow boot when I felt something hard. I reached in and pulled out a half-eaten starfish.