Beauty and The Beads

Games raquo; St. Louis Cardinals

May22
How they gave one away

The Royals pitched like Jack Kerouac on Sunday: They were all over the place. (Hey, how many top-notch literary references do you get to see in sportsstories?)

The Royals hitters were scoring as fast as they could but were unable to keep up with the Royals pitchers, who were busy walking 13 batters and hitting one. Add in the error by Mike Aviles on a tough play, and the Royals gave the Cardinals 15 extra base-runners in a close game. You ain’t gonna win much if you dothat.

Home-plate umpire Angel Campos didn’t help. He had a tight strike zone all day, and several Cardinals batters got the benefit of the doubt on close calls. On the other hand, I’m almost positive Campos was also behind the plate when the Royals were batting, and they only walkedonce.

Campos’ zone indirectly led to the ejection of Royals catcher Matt Treanor and manager Ned Yost. During most games, the catcher and umpire have a dialogue all day. They essentially are working as a team, and it’s not uncommon for the catcher to ask where the umpire had the pitch and where the pitcher needs to throw it to get the call. As in, “Where was that?” and “Bring it up abit.”

These negotiations are fairly routine, and baseball etiquette calls for them to be conducted in private. The catcher always looks ahead (looking back at the umpire is considered showing him up) and the umpire never comes around and confronts the catcher face to face. Although once in a while, cleaning the plate serves the same purpose. The umpire sweeps the dish while telling the catcher he’s had aboutenough.

Anyway, the Treanor-Campos dispute apparently was not about the strike zone, but about whether Treanor could continue to talk to Campos about the zone. Treanor was professional and stared forward, Campos lost it and tossed him. That brought out Yost, who felt Campos hadn’t handled the situation correctly and then Ned gottossed.

Then Campos got into it with the Royals’ acting manager, John Gibbons, when Campos refused to ask for help on the hit-by-pitch call while Gerald Laird was bunting. To me, refusing to ask for help shows insecurity on the umpire’s part. (If he got it right, why not? And if he got it wrong, doesn’t he want to get it right? The correct answer is no. Some umpires would rather saveface.)

Give credit to the Royals for battling back from a 7-1 deficit. They might have beaten the Cardinals, but beating the Cardinals and their own pitching staff was toomuch.

Sisson’s nothappy

Like I said yesterday, the Royals are not going to abandon their base-running philosophy, but that doesn’t mean they’re OK with guys getting picked off. Doug Sisson made that point clear and called for some extra base-running practice early Sunday. He told me that the pickoffs meant he wasn’t doing a good enough job, and neither were the players. They see the problem and intend to get itfixed.

Pickofftiming

Base-runners take secondary leads once the pitcher goes home in the form of a couple of sideways shuffle steps. Catchers sometimes are taught to attempt a pickoff when the batter tries to bunt and misses or swings through the ball. (On Saturday, Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina picked off Alex Gordon after Eric Hosmer swung and missed.) The reason? The base-runner will get more aggressive with that secondary lead if he thinks the ball will be put in play and you might catch him a step too far away from thebase.

Pena’s wildpitches

Robinson Tejeda threw two wild pitches Saturday, and I wrote that it looked like Brayan Pena’s chest was too vertical when he blocked the pitches. Being vertical allows the ball to bounce away when it hits the chest protector. If the catcher can get his chest above the ball and closer to parallel, the ball will drop straightdown.

Brayan thought I was right on the first wild pitch, but he said the second pitch bounced further out in front of the plate and he had to stay vertical to make sure the ball didn’t go over him. There always is something new to learn outhere.

The corners have tohit

I was talking with Chris Getz about Eric Hosmer’s defense and noted that nobody keeps a first baseman for his glove. Chris agreed and said his value to a team could be shown in a variety of ways besides hitting: defense, base-running, getting down a bunt, etc. But a corner player (first base, third base, left field and right field) has to hit. If the one of the guys up the middle turns out to be an offensive force, it might take some pressure off one of the corner players, but it also can lead to that weird baseball logic: “The shortstop isn’t hitting, so you’re being sentdown.”

One moredetail

I was talking to Kelly Heath about metrics and statistics (they all use this stuff, some more than others), and he was talking about playing shortstop. He was going through all the details you have to think about, and one of them was the catcher’s mitt. Say you’re set up for a pitch away, and the catcher’s mitt starts to move inside to receive the ball. The infielders have to shift with it in order to be in the right place if the ball is put inplay.

Gibby ondefense

I talked about just making the routine play and how important that was in baseball. John Gibbons (who has had just a tad more experience than me in a slightly better league) pointed out that just making the routine play was enough if you had a good offense, but if you struggle to score runs, you better rob some hitters. Can you say AlcidesEscobar?

The springboardgame

Those of us in the media like the idea of a “springboard” game. Hell, we like any simple explanation. Ever notice how we explain the actions of millions of stockholders with one explanation? (Investors depressed by gas prices, drove stocks down … we know their motivation and we didn’t talk to any of them.) Anyway, the idea that an exciting win leads to a string of wins or a depressing loss sends you into a slump is irresistible, but it probably isn’ttrue.

You could be as upbeat as you liked and Nolan Ryan was still going to stick it where the sun don’t shine the next day. Baseball guys spend a lot of time keeping an even keel, and fans would be wise to do the same. Getting out in front, thinking about the future is a good way to screw up your now. The smart guys take it one game at a time. The really smart guys take it one pitch at a time and fans would do well to take it the sameway.

TheRapture

I didn’t see Trevor Vance on Sunday morning, but intended to ask him about the grounds crew’s plan if the world had ended Saturday. Does the Rapture call for covering theinfield?

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Don DeCelles
4 days, 18 hours ago

National Harbor is looking for ways to increase the number of visitors. That hook may come in the form of a new outlet mall, built on 40 nearby acres.

National Harbor is hoping to build on the success of discount outlet malls like Potomac Mills and others built far from the Washington suburbs.

Steven Peterson, president of the Peterson Companies, says, We are excited to announce that we have entered into a joint venture with Tanger Outlet centers to build a 350-thousand square foot facility, on the backside of National Harbor for 80 world-class stores.

The Outlets will be built on land is known as Salubria. Before the Civil War, the land was a slave plantation on Oxon Hill Road.

Local Historic societies and some long-time residents like Joyce Hawkins want the site preserved, so the lessons of slavery are not forgotten.

Joyce Hawkins says shed like to see the land preserved as a park. With a nice plaque, she said. If any of those columns are left from the original building, they should be incorporated into the park. But I cant see really having a mall there.

News4 asked customers at National Harbor how they fell about using the plantation for an outlet mall.

Novari Bailey, who was eating lunch at National Harbor says, I think they ought to have a plaque or memorial to somehow preserve the history of it, just so it doesnt get lost.

Maryland Governor Martin OMalley says the outlet mall could be a much needed economic boost.This is an opportunity to get high-end retail outlets located inside the beltway in Prince Georges county. And I think its great, not only for our economy and great for the jobs, its also great for the quality of living and what it says about the future of Prince Georges.

If all goes according to plan, National Harbor should have its outlet mall up and running in about a year and a half.

It looks like an attack on the US Chamber of Commerce website from hacktivist group Anonymous — scheduled for 8 pm eastern time Monday according to posts on online image board 4chan and news aggregator Reddit — passed without incident and the site is still online.

The attack was supposed to be part of a protest against anti-piracy legislation proposed in Congress called the PROTECT IP act — or Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property. The hacktivist group said that the bill would allow the US Government to force search engines and internet service providers to censor websites they do not like by saying it could cause copyright infringement. It wouldnt be the first time Anonymous has taken up a political cause as the group attacked Visa and Bank of America for trying to cut off Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

The US Chamber of Commerces website is still humming and shows no sign of slowing down. The site loaded in a few seconds around the time the attack took place and it still only takes just a few seconds to load as of 11 pm pacific time. It looks like Anonymous was not able to rally enough of an attacking force to bring the site offline with a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack using a program called the low-orbit ion cannon.

The attack wasnt necessarily a failure — but it just shows how divisive and amorphous hacktivist group Anonymous can be. While a number of online activists frequently claim leadership over the hacking group and release missives and press releases, it can be difficult to rally the online hackers toward a cause. Its usually politically motivated, like when the hacktivist group brought attacked Sony after the company tried to sue a hacker for jailbreaking a PlayStation 3 console.

Anonymous is a murky name sweepingly applied to hackers who frequent online forums like 4chan and other news aggregators that have undertaken some of the larger political causes. But because it isnt an official organization, its hard to place any faces or names to the hacktivist group and it can, at times, be a very loose organization. There are also a few reports that hackers within the quasi-group Anonymous are starting to attack each other over how the PlayStation Network attacks and responses were handled.

Sony laid indirect blame for its online gaming network, the PlayStation Network (PSN), downtime on Anonymous, which typically rallies a group of loosely connected hackers under moral or political banners to take down large companies. The company said its defenses were weakened while it was fending off DDoS attacks from Anonymous, giving hackers an opportunity to break in. Anonymous has denied that it was involved in breaking into and bringing down the PSN.

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Popular online shopping site PriceGrabber.com recently released an update to its Android app, which now gives shopaholics on the go a more feature-rich browsing and buying experience.

First, browsing through products is now a little bit easier; you can view enlarged product images, read detailed product descriptions, and evaluate product offers for new, used, or refurbished items. Also, theres now built-in sharing functionality for when you stumble on items perfect for a family member or friend. The app can share product information through e-mail, SMS, Facebook, or Twitter.

PriceGrabber for
Android also introduces discount badges, which denote heavily discounted items within PriceGrabber.coms database. The eye-catching icon is sure to make it easier to quickly identify attractive buys while scrolling through exhaustive lists of products.

And finally, shoppers now have a convenient way to view inventory levels of local brick-and-mortar retailers. Find a specific item, have PriceGrabber check the stock at local stores, and even have the app navigate you there. Now thats streamlined shopping.

PriceGrabber is available for download in the Android marketplace now.

Faced with the increasing price of medical care, more pet owners are now pulling out insurance cards when visiting the veterinarys office.

Pet health insurance has been available in the United States for nearly 30 years, but expanded veterinary treatments and changing attitudes toward the family pet has bolstered the number of policies over the past decade, even during the economic downturn.

The humanization of pets is driving it, as people are more likely to treat pets as four-legged members of their family, said Grant Biniasz, a spokesperson for VPI Pet Insurance based in Brea, Calif., the largest pet insurance provider in the nation.

The growth has drawn new insurance providers into the market in recent years, including St. Louis-based Nestle Purina PetCare. The company started its PurinaCare insurance subsidiary in 2008 and now covers all 50 states.

Pet insurance has grown at a glacial pace in the United States, but it has gained speed in the past decade. A recent American Pet Products Association estimate shows 3 percent of the nations 78 million dogs and 1 percent of its 93 million cats are now covered. Thats up from 1 percent of dogs and virtually no cats covered in 1998.

Insurance has gained wider acceptance in Europe, including the United Kingdom, where 20 percent of pets have policies, and Sweden, where its estimated at least 30 percent of pets are covered, according to New York-based research firm Packaged Facts.

A growing market

VPI Pet Insurance issued the first pet insurance policy in the United States in 1982. VPI has dominated the industry, but it lost market share in recent years. VPI had 52 percent market share in 2009, according to Packaged Facts, down from 68 percent in 2005.

The number of pet insurance providers in the United States doubled over the last decade from six to a dozen in 2010.

Among the newcomers is Nestle Purina. After studying the pet insurance market for three years, the company felt it could be competitive by drawing on its experience and research in pet health.

Other Purina subsidiaries around the world have expressed interest in pet insurance, but our current focus is limited to the North American market, said Dr. David Goodnight, a veterinarian and president of PurinaCare, which is based in San Antonio.

Its rivals include pet retailer PetCo and the financial services division of grocery chain Kroger. Theres speculation that Wal-Mart will introduce a pet insurance product at its Canadian stores this year.

Consider the costs

Monthly pet insurance premiums start at about $10, but they can exceed $100 for some older dogs. Pre-existing conditions are typically excluded, and pet owners are reimbursed after submitting claims.

Providers policies vary. Some of the higher-end preventive plans cover heartworm and flea medications in addition to vaccines and annual exams. Some of the lower-cost plans just provide coverage for accidents and illnesses.

Consumer Reports Money Adviser newsletter did an analysis of four insurers VPI, ASPCA Pet Health Insurance, 24PetWatch QuickCare and Trupanion and concluded that for generally healthy animals, insurance isnt worth the cost. For most owners, having an emergency fund for unexpected pet bills is a better choice.

[Last modified: May 23, 2011 05:35 PM]

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When Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com in 1994, could he have imagined how the companys gravitational pull would make it the center of the e-commerce universe? The company conquered the online sales of goods from CDs to groceries, is partnering with social media giant, Facebook, essentially created the e-book market and most recently has its sights on the video rental space the next chapter in its quest to be the center of the online retail space.

Amazon envisions the future of the e-commerce world to be in the cloud based on product launches in the past five years. In 2001, Amazon enabled its users to buy and sell used and new products and four years later began selling private label goods (under the name, Pinzon). Amazon has focused less on physical goods and more on the cloud in the second half of the decade.

In 2006, Amazon began selling data storage, called Amazon Simple Storage Service, and a year later launched its digital music service. In that same year, Amazon launched its ground-breaking e-reader the Kindle. And in July 2010, e-book sales overshadowed Amazons hardcover books. In fact, Amazon claims it sold 143 e-books for every 100 hardcover books. The success of the Kindle (which can only be rumored to be successful as Amazon has never released sales figures of the device) has arguably led to the current war of the tablets with competitors like Apple, Google, Dell, HP and others.

With its e-book sales increasing (a resource with tips for eBook authors), Amazon is poised to tackle the emerging online video rental market. Online video is certainly a rising trend amongst internet users. In the month of December 2009, 178 million people watched 33.2 billion videos, with the average viewer watching 187 videos per month in the U.S, according to comScore. To capture this growing audience, Amazon recently announced it would soon begin $.99 online video rentals and launched video streaming, similar to Netflix. But Amazon isnt the only company picking up on the trend.

Steve Jobs recently released the new iTV video rental device, Google has beta tested its YouTube rentals and the rapid growth of Netflix over the last couple of years is going to be challenging for Amazon to compete against. Netflix had 15 million subscribers as of June 30, an increase from 10.5 million a year ago, with 61 percent of them having watched a movie or television show via the internet on computers and web-connected TVs. And Netflixs CEO admitted over the next decade he anticipates the company to focus primarily on internet streaming, reports the LA Times.

Amazon.com has used aggressive price discounts to carve out a dominant position in print and electronic books, writes the Wall Street Journal. But the company is faced with formidable competitors in the online video space. Beyond the industry leader, Netflix, Amazon is challenged by Apple which aims to replicate its $.99 music downloads in the video rental market with its new iTV. Amazons goal is to match the $.99 rentals, but if Apples iTV takes off, Amazon could lose grasp of the market.

Will Amazon tackle the online video rental market as it did with e-books? If Amazon can parallel its e-book success in the online video space, the online retailer will be that much closer to achieving its goal of becoming the center of the e-commerce universe.

Image by Gabriella Fabbri from Stock.Xchng

Earlier today Glenn Beck and his company Mercury Radio Arts caught a lot of people off guard when they announced that they were stepping into Groupon territory launching a ecommerce discount site Markdown.com.

I cant believe we managed to keep it a secret! Mercury President and CEO Chris Balfe told me earlier today over the phone when I spoke to him and Markdown president Keith Ferry about the site, which went live earlier today with deals from longtime ad partner LifeLock.com as well as Chocolate.com.

(Chocolate seemed a natural fit for us, Ferry tells me, Glenn loves food [indeed!] and can really get behind the product.)

According to Balfe Mercury has been contemplating a play for ecommerce for a really long time. However, the recent success of companies like Groupon and Living Social emboldened us to take faster action.

That and the immediate success of Becks news site The Blaze, which launched last October and straightaway saw the sort of traffic most new sites spend years chasing. It grew rapidly due in large part to mentions on Becks radio and television shows and links in his daily newsletters. Markdown intends to take advantage of these avenues as well.

(Balfe tells me they were better prepared this time around for the traffic surges that come along with a mention on any or all of the above and gave the site many stress tests prior to launch.)

Thats not to say Beck is looking to replicate Groupon. The main thrust behind Markdown, Ferry says, will be curating deals and products with our audience in mind… What will our audience like? And Balfe notes that they are coming at it from a different angle, without the focus on local deals.

The tag line for the site is Value and Values, and Ferry used phrases curating and maintain trust a number of times during our conversation to describe what he hopes to accomplish with the site. Both speak to the unique (and enviable) position the site finds itself in.

As has been mentioned many times before Beck boasts not only a large, but a devoted audience (the Wall St. Journal today described them as rabid). Evidence of how devoted was on display last August when hundreds of thousands of people showed up on the National Mall for Restoring Honor rally.

From a business standpoint its apparent every time Beck mentions a book on his television show (even one he professes to hate) and immediately sends it to the top of the Amazon charts. Its the same devotion that has made Becks subscription service Insider Extreme so hugely popular; people will pay for his product.

It also gives Mercury the unusual advantage of knowing the audience they are a selling to and subsequently mitigates the amount of experimenting that necessarily goes into most new businesses.

With that in mind it seems only natural that Beck and company would take the next step and begin to monetize the impressive power of their recommendations. Essentially Mercury is building a ecommerce site around the Glenn Beck brand but to sell items that are not branded Glenn Beck beyond his stamp of approval.

In fact, perhaps the only thing thats surprising about this development is that Oprah Winfrey (a figure to whom Beck has been previously compared) hasnt done so before now. (Oprahsfavoritethings.com anyone?).

Where Beck is concerned the possibilities appear multitude. I asked Ferry and Balfe whether they could foresee expanding Markdown to include deals on books and travel packages (Becks upcoming Restoring Courage rally in Israel this summer seems a natural fit, though its already been outsourced to a independent travel agency) and Ferry said both were likely possibilities.

It will also provide Mercury a platform to reach out to new ad partners and well as provide a new platform to advertisers Beck has worked with for many years through his radio show.

It may also provide a revenue platform for smaller businesses: Ferry reiterated to me what Beck himself had noted in the release, namely that Markdown is open to offering deals with smaller businesses they think might be a fit with their audience.

Where Markdown will fit in the larger Beck business picture remains to be seen. As noted in todays long New York piece on Fox News and Roger Ailes Beck earned more than 90% of his reported $40 million income from non-Fox activities, a number which underscores not only the thriving business he has built as well but his lack of dependence on Fox… at least monetarily speaking (platform-wise may or may not be another story).

I asked Balfe how he saw Markdown fitting into the larger Mercury Radio Arts financial picture. Balfe noted that it was far to early to get any sense numbers-wise where Markdown was heading — currently Ferry is the president and only employee, though based on todays volume of traffic I am told that might change by tomorrow — but that they plan to grow it into a really big business.

One imagines there are a lot of media figures and companies who will be paying close attention to exactly how that is accomplished.

A tarantula, among many other pets, has taken shelter at the Edmonton Humane Society until its owners, who have had to relocate, will be able to care for it again.

Faced with the increasing price of medical care, more pet owners are now pulling out insurance cards when visiting the veterinarys office.

Pet health insurance has been available in the United States for nearly 30 years, but expanded veterinary treatments and changing attitudes toward the family pet has bolstered the number of policies over the past decade, even during the economic downturn.

The humanization of pets is driving it, as people are more likely to treat pets as four-legged members of their family, said Grant Biniasz, a spokesperson for VPI Pet Insurance based in Brea, Calif., the largest pet insurance provider in the nation.

The growth has drawn new insurance providers into the market in recent years, including St. Louis-based Nestle Purina PetCare. The company started its PurinaCare insurance subsidiary in 2008 and now covers all 50 states.

Pet insurance has grown at a glacial pace in the United States, but it has gained speed in the past decade. A recent American Pet Products Association estimate shows 3 percent of the nations 78 million dogs and 1 percent of its 93 million cats are now covered. Thats up from 1 percent of dogs and virtually no cats covered in 1998.

Insurance has gained wider acceptance in Europe, including the United Kingdom, where 20 percent of pets have policies, and Sweden, where its estimated at least 30 percent of pets are covered, according to New York-based research firm Packaged Facts.

A growing market

VPI Pet Insurance issued the first pet insurance policy in the United States in 1982. VPI has dominated the industry, but it lost market share in recent years. VPI had 52 percent market share in 2009, according to Packaged Facts, down from 68 percent in 2005.

The number of pet insurance providers in the United States doubled over the last decade from six to a dozen in 2010.

Among the newcomers is Nestle Purina. After studying the pet insurance market for three years, the company felt it could be competitive by drawing on its experience and research in pet health.

Other Purina subsidiaries around the world have expressed interest in pet insurance, but our current focus is limited to the North American market, said Dr. David Goodnight, a veterinarian and president of PurinaCare, which is based in San Antonio.

Its rivals include pet retailer PetCo and the financial services division of grocery chain Kroger. Theres speculation that Wal-Mart will introduce a pet insurance product at its Canadian stores this year.

Consider the costs

Monthly pet insurance premiums start at about $10, but they can exceed $100 for some older dogs. Pre-existing conditions are typically excluded, and pet owners are reimbursed after submitting claims.

Providers policies vary. Some of the higher-end preventive plans cover heartworm and flea medications in addition to vaccines and annual exams. Some of the lower-cost plans just provide coverage for accidents and illnesses.

Consumer Reports Money Adviser newsletter did an analysis of four insurers VPI, ASPCA Pet Health Insurance, 24PetWatch QuickCare and Trupanion and concluded that for generally healthy animals, insurance isnt worth the cost. For most owners, having an emergency fund for unexpected pet bills is a better choice.

[Last modified: May 23, 2011 05:35 PM]

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Copyright 2011 St. Petersburg Times

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The folks at Pet Poison Helpline share this report that details the top-selling human medications and the potential dangers these drugs pose to pets.
The IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics recently released a report that included the top five human prescription drugs dispensed in the United States: Lipitor, Nexium, Plavix, Advair Diskus and Abilify.
Because Pet Poison Helpline’s call volume is high for dogs and cats that have ingested human medications harmful to pets, the veterinarians explain how these drugs typically affect pets that swallow them. Some drugs cause only minor symptoms, while some can be potentially life-threatening.
No. 1:  Lipitor (atorvastatin)
Used to reduce cholesterol levels.Generally when pets get into Lipitor, only mild side effects are seen, such as vomiting and diarrhea. Therefore, Lipitor is not considered to have high toxicity levels for pets. Although some human drugs are utilized in veterinary medicine, Lipitor is not.
No. 2: Nexium (esomeprazole)
An anti-ulcer medication and proton-pump inhibitor that results in decreased gastric-acid secretion. Although it is used in veterinary medicine for some pets, mild side effects can include vomiting and diarrhea. Owners of dogs or cats that get into this drug should watch their pet closely, but not be alarmed because symptoms will generally subside on their own.
No. 3: Plavix (clopidogrel)
Affects platelets in humans, inhibiting clot formation and reducing the risk of stroke. When pets get into Plavix, it has a wide margin of safety and generally is not considered to be acutely toxic. Only mild vomiting or diarrhea may be seen.
No. 4: Advair Diskus® (fluticasone propionate and salmeterol)
Often used for treating asthma and administered through an inhaler, Advair Diskus contains beta-agonist drugs that expand the lungs and steroids that decrease inflammation in the lungs. Because inhalers contain many doses, dogs that chew into them are exposed to massive amounts of the drug all at once. This often results in heart arrhythmias, an elevated heart rate, agitation, vomiting and even acute collapse. Severe electrolyte abnormalities such as very low potassium levels are likely and can be life-threatening without immediate veterinary treatment.
No. 5: Abilify (aripiprazole)
Contains aripiprazole, an atypical antipsychotic agent that is used to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and clinical depression. Keep this drug out of the reach of pets, because ingestion can result in profound lethargy, vomiting, hyperthermia, significant changes in heart rate and blood pressure, and seizures. If a pet ingests this drug, immediate veterinary attention is needed.
To keep pets safe from ingesting these and other dangerous human medications, the veterinarians at Pet Poison Helpline offer these recommendations.
 Store human medications in a different location from pet medications.
Weekly pill holders are irresistible to some dogs, becaues they resemble chew toys and rattle. The danger is that a dog could ingest a full seven days’ worth of medications, significantly increasing the risk for poisoning.
Avoid putting medications into plastic storage bags before traveling. The bags are not pet-proof and can easily be chewed into.
 Hang your purse out of your pets reach. Inhalers, medications, sugar-free gum and other items that are dangerous to pets can be easily snatched out of a purse by a curious dog or cat.
Pet Poison Helpline recently produced a video titled “Handbag Hazards.” Take a look.   

If you think your pet has ingested something poisonous, it is always better (and less expensive) to get help immediately. Contact your veterinarian or Pet Poison Helpline at 1-800-213-6680 for lifesaving help.  Pet Poison Helpline charges$35 per call but the price includes unlimited follow-up consultations.