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6A Daily News – Saturday, June 2, 2012 healthPetsactivities & Pet frog lives on and on By Mary Beth Brecken- ridge Akron Beacon Journal house. (MCT) I have a frog in my not exactly willingly. It lives in an aquarium, where it does little more than stare at us dolefully and remind us that life as a frog in captivity is not one to envy. Intentionally, though even have a name, other than Frog. Or sometimes Mr. Frog. Or, in rare moments when we're feel- ing particularly affection- ate toward it, Froggie. If you're sensing I lack emotional attachment to this creature, you would be correct. The poor thing doesn't help keep your dog healthy By Kathy Antoniotti Akron Beacon Journal (MCT) Insurance, prevention can Some dogs will eat just about anything, and most aren't all that picky when it comes to snagging a snack. No question about it. If it smells foul enough, a dog will do one of two things: Eat it or roll in it. A plucky little pug from Maryland named Mickey became accustomed to snacking in his owners' garden. The toxic mushrooms he found will probably be the most expen- sive snack he will ever eat. After almost $3,000 in medical treatments, Mickey walked away with no lasting side effects. And fortunately for Mickey's owners, they had pet medical insurance that covered Mickey's medical bills. According to the American Pet Products Association, Americans spent $13.4 billion on veterinary care for their pets in 2011. Pet supplies and over-the-counter medications accounted for an additional $11.77 billion. Providers of pet insurance have grown tenfold in the last MCT file photo Frog has to be the homeliest, least lovable pet possible. Yet there it is, taking up space in my family room. We have my husband's brother and his wife to blame for Frog's arrival in our life. They gave my son a little aquarium for his birthday — his eighth, if memory serves — along with a certificate for a free aquatic frog by mail. Won't this be fun, we thought. It wasn't. We quickly discovered that my son was so severely allergic to frog food that his eyes would itch and swell whenever he'd catch a whiff of the stuff. So my husband, God bless him, had to take over the crea- ture's care. The frog just kind of hung there in the water most of the time, looking dejected. So we decided he — or maybe she — needed a friend. Off we sent for Frog No. 2. Won't this be fun, we thought. It still wasn't. No matter. We figured those pets would be about as hardy as carnival fish. We'd soon be frog-free, we reasoned. In the case of Frog No. 1, we were right. But Frog. No. 2 lives on. And my son is 23 now. Frog is the Rasputin of amphibians. Not too long after we got him, I discov- ered his tank overturned and empty on my son's bedroom floor. Figuring he had become food for our two cats, I shrugged it off, cleaned up the mess and packed away the equipment. Several days later, I almost stepped on some- thing in the family room. It was Frog, looking none the worse for wear. How he got down the stairs, I'll never know. It wouldn't surprise me if it were in a cat's mouth. After that, Frog was banished to my son's clos- et, safe from our oversize feline brutes. When we moved some time later, the frog's tank went into our laundry room cup- board. tence, but still we clung to the hope that it wouldn't last long. It was a bleak exis- As the years passed, though, my husband and I started wondering if we had some kind of record holder. So when he called to reorder frog food, he mentioned Frog's age to a representative of the com- pany that sold him to us. "Oh, that's nothing. They can live to be 17," she said. Seventeen? have Frog for another two years. We gave fleeting thought to releasing him in a pond, but we figure he'd be easy prey or freeze in the winter conditions of a climate he wasn't built to handle. Besides, I don't like introducing non- native species to the envi- ronment. What if he found some cute little aquatic frog and created an inva- sive species problem? At least he's out of the cupboard now, having outlived the big cats. Now he lives to taunt the dumber of our two current kitties, who aren't big enough to budge his tank. Every day of her 5 1/2 years, the cat has stalked that frog and pawed at its tank in a futile effort to That means we could snag a snack. Frog hovers just beyond the cat's reach, a millimeter-thick sheet of Plexiglas separat- ing him from certain demise. It's a rare bit of excite- ment in an otherwise uneventful life. And yet he sings. Just about every decade, but only about 1 percent of Americans purchase it for pet emergencies said Dr. Jules Benson of Philadelphia, vice president of Petplan Pet Insurance. "We believe as an insurance company that you should be insured for those unanticipated risks," he said. Benson is originally from the United Kingdom where this growing industry has gained momentum faster than in the United States. "In the United Kingdom, 28 percent of pet owners insure their pets," he said. The APPA estimates the average pet owner spent $650 on vet bills in 2011. But it takes only one major illness or accident to spend double or triple that amount to keep an animal healthy. evening we hear him croaking his rhythmic, resonant tune, the kind of velvety sound that soothes summer nights. Quaaa, quaaa, quaa, his song goes. confinement, despite darkness and neglect and predator threats. Somewhere out there, I suppose, he hopes another frog can hear him. No way am I letting it He sings in his solitary in. Mary Beth Breckenridge can be reached at 330- 996-3756 or mbrecken@thebeaconjou rnal.com. You can also become a fan on Facebook, follow her on Twitter @MBBreckenridge and read her blog at www.ohio.com/blogs/mary -beth. Benson suggested that owners who are considering insuring their pets compare plans. Average pet insurance premiums run about $400 a year. You can expect premiums to be higher for animals that traditionally are more prone to some diseases. offered these suggestions to help protect your pet from the poisons in the garden so it doesn't end up like little Mickey the pug. • Vegetables that can be dangerous if ingested by pets include onions and chives, which can cause red blood cell destruction; rhubarb leaves, which contain kidney-damag- ing oxalic acid; and members of the nightshade family such as eggplant, tomatoes and potatoes, which contain deadly alkaloids. Just as gardening season is getting under way, Benson • When building your flower beds, avoid cocoa bean mulches. Their chocolaty smell is very enticing to pups, but just like chocolate, cocoa bean mulches contain theo- bromine, which is toxic for dogs. • Gardening organically is good for the planet and your pets. The herbicides and pesticides used in some popular gardening products can potentially make your dog sick. If you do choose to use these products in your garden, try to prevent your dog from digging-in/eating/licking the treated areas. • If it's impossible to keep your pets' paws from prying, consider installing some type of fencing to keep your pet out of harm's way. Doctors are also warning of heatstroke in pets now that the weather is getting warmer. They urge pet owners to keep pets in cool, shady areas on hot days, making sure they stay hydrated. Animal Island: Renew your dog's license — or get one Now that the nice weather is here with long daylight hours, pets are going to be out and about and in the public eye. Most jurisdictions have some sort of dog licensing program or registration. Now is the time to check your dog's registration to see if it is current. This may seem like a small issue in the big scheme of things, but the funds from pet registra- tions allow communities to provide animal control services and spaying and neutering programs and to collect important data. One year I confess that I did not renew my dogs' licenses when they were due and, while my wife was in the park with the two of them one evening, an enforcement agent asked her if the dogs' licenses were current. When he found out that they were not, my wife got a summons and had to go to court. A whole lot of family drama could have been avoided had I remembered to fill out a form and send it to town hall with a small fee. Labrador, and he was the love of my life — after he hit 2 years old, that is. Up until then, he destroyed our home and drove us nuts. My neighbor has a Lab that just had a litter of puppies, and my kids are begging for one. With the summer almost here, I find it hard to say no, as I am a teacher and will have the time now to train a puppy. However, at this point in my life, I just can- not go through what my mother had to do with my childhood Lab. Could you Q: As a child, I had a Bumper Crop and Potting Soil SALE Buy FREE 3 Bags and get 1 Red Bluff Garden Center 527-0886 766 Antelope Blvd. (Next to the Fairground) offer any suggestions that would make my life easier before I tell everyone "yes" to the puppy? A: Whole books have been written on this sub- ject, so it is very hard to give you a single answer. Here are my two best bits of advice: Treat the puppy with the same patience and acceptance you would a human child. I am not saying that the dog is like a human, though. Realize that when a puppy makes a mess or destroys some- thing, it is not trying to be bad. You would not yell or scream at a toddler who spilled something or made a mess when your eyes were averted, and a puppy is just the same in this respect. The point here is to show the dog the same patience and acceptance you would a child. This goes a long way in your opinion of the puppy's behavior. have the opportunity to do something wrong, it will never think of it as an option. If the dog takes food off the counter or chews up the couch, then it has gotten rewarded for it and does not understand why you are yelling at it. If the dog does not have the opportunity to elimi- nate in the house at all, then it will decide for itself that the only option is the area outdoors that you keep bringing it to. If the puppy does not Putting away all items for- bidden to the puppy or limiting the dog's access to them prevents all sorts of drama. All these prob- lems can be prevented with the use of training crates and gates and just common sense. If you anticipate "bad" behavior and eliminate the dog's chance to engage in it, you have solved the problem before it has even begun. Q: Last week you wrote about hedgehogs and why they are not legal in some states because not all jurisdictions follow the same definition of a domesticated animal. I like ferrets, and I know they are not legal as pets in New York City and Cal- ifornia — and yet every- body seems to agree that ferrets are domesticated. So why are they not legal in those areas? A: You are correct about ferrets being totally domesticated. They have been domesticated as long as cats have been and do not occur in the wild at all. Actually, they are more domesticated than cats. A feral cat can live just fine without any help from humans at all, but no domesticated ferret can survive long without food and shelter provided from humans. Plus, all pet fer- rets that are sold commer- cially have been neutered or spayed beforehand, so even if they could survive independently from humans, they could not breed or reproduce.