Gardeners Beware!

Please share this with all the pet owners you know and ask them to do the same - the information you take a few minutes to share might prevent the senseless loss of other pets.

Please tell every dog or cat owner you know. Even if you don't have a pet, please pass this to those who do.
Cocoa Mulch, which is sold by Target, Home Depot, Foreman's Garden Supply and other garden supply stores contains a lethal ingredient called 'Theobromine'. It is lethal to dogs and cats. It smells like chocolate and it really attracts dogs. They will ingest this stuff and die. Several deaths already occurred in the last 2-3 weeks.
Over the weekend, the doting owner of two young lab mixes purchased Cocoa Mulch from Target to use in their garden. The dogs loved the way it smelled and it was advertised to keep cats away from their garden. Their dog (Calypso) decided the mulch smelled good enough to eat and devoured a large helping. She vomited a few times which was typical when she eats something new but wasn't acting lethargic in any way. The next day, Mom woke up and took Calypso out for her morning walk . Half way through the walk, she had a seizure and died instantly.

Although the mulch had NO warnings printed on the label, upon further investigation on the company's web site, this product is HIGHLY toxic to dogs and cats.

Cocoa Mulch is manufactured by Hershey's, and they claim that "It is true that studies have shown that 50% of the dogs that eat Cocoa Mulch can suffer physical harm to a variety of degrees (depending on each individual dog). However, 98% of all dogs won't eat it."

*Snopes site gives the following information:http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/cocoamulch.asp *

Theobromine is in all chocolate, especially dark or baker's chocolate which is toxic to dogs. Cocoa bean shells contain potentially toxic quantities of theobromine, a xanthine compound similar in effects to caffeine and theophylline. A dog that ingested a lethal quantity of garden mulch made from cacao bean shells developed severe convulsions and died 17 hours later. Analysis of the stomach contents and the ingested cacao bean shells revealed the presence of lethal amounts of theobromine.

**PLEASE PASS THIS ON**

Signs

What's that song? Signs, signs every where signs. I told Carol to come back & haunt me, send me a sign. My dogwood tree that I planted years ago (2001) has never bloomed. The day Carol passed I noticed one white flower on it, just one, on the whole tree, just one! Not 20, 50, 10, 5, just 1! How weird is that? A twitter friend, @BonnieGlick, just donated a kidney. She had a tree bloom that had never bloomed. Wild eh?

Saturday, Carol's family had a memorial at Garozzo's in Lee's Summit. They had a slide show that made me cry the more I thought about her. Then her husband spoke and I cried again. I spoke to another of her many friends and started getting teary eyed again. On my way home I was driving down Colbern Rd & a huge turkey flew right in front of the car. I'm taking that as Carol's way of saying : Get your shit together, you turkey! I'll be watching for other signs. Knowing Carol she will do her best to let me know she's OK.

My brother was 21 years old when he died in a car accident. We were what you call Irish twins. He was 11 months younger than me. I've had 2 dreams of him. He could not talk to me in the dream because he was dead & I knew it. But he hung out with us. And had that crooked smile of his. That smile said it all. He was OK.

My family does have a weird history of seers, dreams, out of body experiences, that kind of stuff. I'm not afraid of my loved ones coming to me. I look forward to some kind of sign from one them. It gives me peace. It gives me joy.

Are you looking for a sign? Have you had any? Who was it?