ernie's impatiens

In case you're already wondering if I misspelled "impatience" in the title of this entry, I did not. This flower, one of many varieties Steph is growing on our balcony this year, is one example of a group of flowers called Impatiens. This white variety has a specific name, but it escapes me at the moment.

What does this have to do with my dog Ernie, you might ask? A little while ago, Ernie decided to visit us in the bedroom, only to gag a little and then vomit. After having passed the more nervous puppy months, we are no longer as paranoid about this sort of thing--dogs routinely "up-chuck" and that's about it. However, in this case I noticed that he had been into the Impatiens (evidenced by the remnants of leaves, stalk and petals on the living room floor). Many plants are poisonous to dogs, so we looked it up. One website said, quite bluntly I might add, "All parts of Impatiens are poisonous for dogs". Not the best of news.

Fortunately, we looked up a more reputable source that sited specific types of Impatiens and found that this variety was for the most part harmless.

Just one more chapter in Ernie's book of "munching incidents"...catastrophe averted! Now, if I can just keep him out of my Wine Gums!