Ladders, Dogs and sausages

It's cold here too, but I bet not as cold as in Scotland. You need battery-warmed thingies for your pockets. You are right about dogs' digestive systems - our Lab is a stomach on legs, but I couldn't feed him Christmas dinner because he would indeed wolf it down with dreadful consequences. We are again going to be at our daughter's house. Last year my grandson hung chocolate decorations low down on the tree, and the dog was discovered eating them, silver paper and all...I shall have to remember to dash in first and move them up to the top this year! Just have to hope he can't reach. He will try.
Enjoy your break, you really deserve it. :-)

It's actually not that cold here at the moment 10°C in sheltered spots but the wind!!! It is blowing over the snow covered Pyrenees and is almost Arctic in it's intensity.

Re the dogs Full Christmas dinner is a lovely idea but avoid the potatoes as thats what does the damage! The starch in the tatties scours their digestive tract.

A very merry Christmas to the Highlands

LOL yes i had a dog until he passed away recently that had the nick name of the 'everpresent nostral' - need i say more - he too used to eat everything he is not suposed to, butter from the fridge, my boyfriends keebab off the kichen side when he came back from the pub one night - now that one really did have horrendous concequences lol! he also used to go down the bins near the flats that we lived if he managed to get out! but all of this was not without side effects - he did end up with a long term illness to do with his digestive system which eventually resulted in cancer and was the cause of his death! so all you dog owners out there try not to let the fury friends over indulge too much this christmas. meats fine but as maple has pointed out avoid potatoes and chocolate if you can - we used to buy buddy his own doggy treat stocking, complete with doggy choc and all sorts of other goodies for him that are not damaging in the long term to his digestive system.

We are VERY careful about what Henry eats, he is not allowed to be fed titbits from the table, he sometimes gets a small piece of chicken or fish etc leftovers, but put in his dish. Treats and rewards are strictly controlled too. This may seem mean, but Labs can put on weight very quickly and put strain on their hips, leading to arthritis. Our vet weighs him every 3 months and is pleased with his weight. P.S. I thought I'd come out of the closet about his name - (so now you know!) Scottishgardener - we have had low temps down here, it stayed at 0 degrees all day yesterday, but no winds at the moment to create the dreaded 'wind-chill' factor!

This reminds me that a work colleague's dog died last Xmas from eating tinsel from the tree. It was actually the toxins in the foil that were cause of death. We got a kitten this year and, while we do not believe she has tried to eat anything off our tree, she enjoyed lying under it and playing with the baubles (until we ran out and bought a new scratch pole with toys attached). A couple of months ago, I was using the "search" facility looking for suitable plants for our garden and discovered "Emerald Fern" (Asparagus densiflorus). A further search on Google led to my discovering that it is toxic to domestic cats, so I can't have it. If you type emerald fern into the search box and click the blog tab, you will find more discussion and tips on the subject of plants poisonous to dogs.

Your comment about the tinsel filled me with horror, David. I don't think that Henry would try to eat tinsel, and we haven't any in our house, but I shall certainly keep a close eye on him at my daughter's house over Christmas!
There was a blog with useful websites on the site a while back, I've got one on my laptop as a 'favourite'. I'll check out the one you found, too. Thanks. Happy Christmas.

Later...Thanks to the new system of being able to 'edit' comments afterwards, I've just checked out the site. Scary or what!