[mswhipple]

I know I posted this about a year ago, but just wanted to caution everyone again about the dangers of sticks.

A good friend of mine had a nice, smart Bordie Collie named Plato. This guy also lived on a lake ( there are a lot of lakes around here), and one of Plato's favorite games was to fetch a stick thrown for him into the lake. Well, one fateful afternoon, Plato swam back with his stick, and while running up onto the land, he rammed the stick down his throat. It tore his esophagus badly. The emergency Vet attempted to repair the injury surgically, and it was touch-and-go for a while. The repair would not hold and Plato died a couple of days later. Naturally, my friend was devastated, as we all were. Now, I never let Willie play with sticks. When he finds one, I take it away and give him one of his "outdoor toys" as a substitute.

Just a word of caution. They really can be deadly! :'(

 

[mswhipple]

That looks like a cool toy, born36!

Plato was running with the stick sticking straight out of his mouth. The other end jammed into the ground as he was running up a slight incline. I don't know if you could really consider these to be common circumstances... But like I said before, if it happened once, it could happen again. :'(