On most days, I love my job because of all the fun things I get to write about. Every now and then, however, are those stories that must be told, despite how heartbreaking they are. This is one such story, and while it brings me no pleasure to report it, it’s definitely the kind of thing that everyone needs to be made aware of.
A woman named Kate Chacksfield is trying to warn other pet owners out there that the sweetener xylitol can be fatal to pets. She found out in the worst possible way – her beloved dog Ruby passed away after eating brownies that contained xylitol.
Chacksfield said that Ruby had gotten into brownies before and the chocolate did not make the dog sick. But when Ruby ate two brownies containing xylitol she was extremely sick within 36 hours. Chacksfield said she would have taken Ruby to the vet much sooner if she knew xylitol was harmful to dogs.
Xylitol is a sugar substitute that people use to try to lose weight. Chacksfield used it in her brownies because it has much fewer calories than sugar. She had no idea that xylitol can cause liver failure, seizures, and in some cases death for dogs that consume it.
After Chacksfield rushed Ruby to the vet, the poor dog’s condition quickly worsened. Eight days later, Ruby died. Chacksfield said, “I had no idea how serious eating natural sweeteners was for dogs, the photos of her on life support still make me cry.”
All you dog owners out there, take note. Keep xylitol and other harmful things away from your pets at all times. And if you notice something is wrong, take them to the vet immediately instead of waiting around a day or two to see if they improve.
Good Boy Dog Beer (obviously non-alcoholic, sorry Fido) was created by a Texas couple named Megan and Steve Long so they could drink with their pooch, Rocky. They’ve turned their hobby into a business, and they now distribute their product throughout East Texas. The Longs skip the fermentation stage of the brewing process, though, because hops and alcohol are poisonous to dogs.
The Long’s line of dog beers has some pretty great names, including Mailman Malt Licker, Session Squirrel, and Crotch Sniffin’ Ale.
Megan Long explained the reason behind their special dog beer. She said Good Boy is for their “love for our own puppies and all the animals out there. Our oldest Rottweiler, Rocky, is very sensitive to foods and allergies so we started creating him his own treats and managing his diet better. It helped his allergy outbreaks significantly and we just seemed to progress from there eventually starting our own line of beer for dogs.”
You read that right, Good Boy Dog Beer might also help settle your dog’s stomach in addition to quenching their thirst. Cheers!
If you’ve ever suffered from Postpartum Depression, you know the effects can be absolutely crushing. Celebrities are no different from me or you, and these 10 shared their stories dealing with the devastating condition.
1. Sharon Osbourne
“I did suffer from it with one of my pregnancies, but I was suffering from depression anyways.
“The depression is so dark, you feel like you’re in a black fog the whole time and you just cannot cope. And you get to a point where you don’t realise what you’ve got with the baby and you’re just so dark and distraught and alone and it’s the loneliest feeling in the world.”
2. Celine Dion
“Some of the first days after I came home, I was a little outside myself. One moment, tremendous happiness; the next, fatigue sets in, and I cried for no reason.” She added: “Some of the first days after I came home, I was a little outside myself. I had no appetite and that bothered me. My mother remarked that she noticed I had moments of lifelessness but reassured me that this was entirely normal. It’s for things like that after having a baby that mothers really need emotional support.”
3. Drew Barrymore
“I didn’t have postpartum the first time so I didn’t understand it because I was like, ‘I feel great.’
The second time, I was like, ‘Oh, whoa, I see what people talk about now. I understand’. It’s a different type of overwhelming with the second. I really got under the cloud. I just got right on the idea of, ‘Where do I need to be the most?’ Fifty-fifty would be ideal but life doesn’t work like that. Life is messy. It was just really challenging and I felt overwhelmed. I made a lot of decisions and I definitely changed my work life to suit my parenthood.”
4. Chrissy Teigen
“…I was different than before. Getting out of bed to get to set on time was painful. My lower back throbbed; my shoulders—even my wrists—hurt. I didn’t have an appetite. I would go two days without a bite of food, and you know how big of a deal food is for me. One thing that really got me was just how short I was with people.
I would be in my dressing room, sitting in a robe, getting hair and makeup done, and a crew member would knock on the door and ask: “Chrissy, do you know the lyrics to this song?” And I would lose it. Or “Chrissy, do you like these cat ears, or these panda hands?” And I’d be like: “Whatever you want. I don’t care.” They would leave. My eyes would well up and I would burst into tears. My makeup artist would pat them dry and give me a few minutes.
I couldn’t figure out why I was so unhappy. I blamed it on being tired and possibly growing out of the role: “Maybe I’m just not a goofy person anymore. Maybe I’m just supposed to be a mom.”
5. Brooke Shields
6. Cardi B
“I thought I was going to avoid it. When I gave birth, the doctor told me about postpartum, and I was like, ‘Well, I’m doing good right now, I don’t think that’s going to happen.’ But out of nowhere, the world was heavy on my shoulders.
For some reason, I still don’t feel like my body’s the same. I feel like I don’t have my balance right yet. When it comes to heels, I’m not as good at walking anymore. I feel like I’m holding a weight on me … But there’s an energy I haven’t gotten back yet that I had before I was pregnant.”
It’s just the weirdest thing.”
7. Adele
“My knowledge of postpartum — or post-natal, as we call it in England — is that you don’t want to be with your child; you’re worried you might hurt your child; you’re worried you weren’t doing a good job. But I was obsessed with my child. I felt very inadequate; I felt like I’d made the worst decision of my life. … It can come in many different forms.
“Eventually I just said, I’m going to give myself an afternoon a week, just to do whatever the f**k I want without my baby. A friend of mine said, ‘Really? Don’t you feel bad?’ I said, I do, but not as bad as I’d feel if I didn’t do it. Four of my friends felt the same way I did, and everyone was too embarrassed to talk about it; they thought everyone would think they were a bad mom, and it’s not the case. It makes you a better mom if you give yourself a better time.”
8. Hayden Panettiere
“If you think for one second that a mother wants to feel that way toward her child, you’re outta your mind. It is one of the most debilitating, scary, guilty feelings that you can ever feel. That a mother would not be able to connect with their child, would not be able to get a grip, or would not know what’s going on, for anybody to say that it’s false or created by us, you must have your head examined.”
9. Serena Williams
“Honestly, sometimes I still think I have to deal with it. I think people need to talk about it more because it’s almost like the fourth trimester, it’s part of the pregnancy.”
10. Gwyneth Paltrow
“About four months into it, Chris came to me and said, ‘Something’s wrong. Something’s wrong.’ I kept saying, ‘No, no, I’m fine.’ But Chris identified it, and that sort of burst the bubble.
I thought postpartum depression meant you were sobbing every single day and incapable of looking after a child. But there are different shades of it and depths of it, which is why I think it’s so important for women to talk about it. It was a trying time. I felt like a failure.”
As always, thanks for reading Did You Know. We really appreciate you spending time with us, and we hope you share articles like this with your friends so we can all be part of the conversation.
On a rainy March night in 1999, robbers climbed atop a Loomis, Fargo & Co. tractor-trailer truck while it was being driven down the highway, cut a hole in the thin aluminum roof and snatched 270 pounds of $20, $50 and $100 bills worth 2.3 million dollars before escaping undetected.
President Kennedy wanted to go to Mars not the Moon – but engineers told him it was ‘a little bit too far’. Nasa told him it would take at least 15 years before we could put a man on the Moon after a weekend of intense calculations.
Since 2017, when Waymo, began testing self-driving vans in Chandler, Arizona, Police have responded to dozens of calls regarding people threatening and harassing them. People have thrown rocks at Waymos, slashed a tire, chased them, tried to run them off the road and aimed a gun at one of them.
Smoking Areas existed in Public High Schools back in the 1980’s. Students could smoke cigarettes on school grounds between classes in designated lounges.
