why dogs can't eat chocolate

me and Significant Other have been sacrificing spending our sleeping hours watching Supernatural (oh emm Castiel!!!!). we're currently at Season 9, and there was this episode where Dean drank some kind of potion which enabled him to talk to animals. one of the side effects included him exhibiting animal behavior, depending on what animal he's been interacting with.

so during this scene where the dog advised Dean not to eat chocolate, Significant Other asked me,
"why can't dogs eat chocolate?".

"i dunno, but i know that they can't." because i read about it aeons ago but never bothered to store the info into my long-term memory. so i told him i'll look it up later.

Chocolate is severely toxic to dogs because it contains theobromine. This is a stimulant that effects the nervous system and heart muscle, as well as increasing the frequency of urination.
Dogs can't metabolize theobromine as effectively as humans. This allows it to build up in their system until it reaches toxic levels of concentration.

taken from here.

apparently, chocolate is not the only thing animals should stay away from:

- fruits of the vine (grapes, raisins, and sultans) are also emerging as a new concern for pet owners.
- onions, garlic, leeks, and chives are also toxic to pets.
- avocado is toxic to pets, and so are macadamia nuts.
- alcohol is deadly also to pets (i must think you're crazy to even give your pet alcohol to begin with).

basically, just avoid feeding your pet human food.

SoOoOoOOoO... aren’t you glad that you were born human? =P~~~
PMS = eat chocolate.
stress!!! = eat chocolate.
mau diabetes = eat chocolate by the truckloads.
hoho.

on another note,

this Dinara still pronounces words like nobody's business.
here's both of us last night after reading one of them princess books.
i was trying to get her to pronounce Princess Jamine's name properly.

me: 'say jasssssss!'
dinara: 'jassssss!'
me: 'minnnnnnnnnnn!'
dinara: 'minnnnnnnnnnn!'
me: 'JASMINE!'
dinara: 'JAQ-MINNNNNNN!!!!!'

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Dinana, ooooOoOOo Dinana. sigh.