Beware of dog or new medium
 

Did you know that a picky dog will turn her nose up at expensive dog food, but lap up oil paint like it was pate'? I didn't either, until today. I was working on a portrait then stepped away for a moment. I heard a slobbering noise and turned around. My show dog Boston Terrier was eating the Asphaltum off of my palette! Picture a beautifully marked, white muzzled, 14 lb hel*ion, with a face full of Asphaltum! Now you know why the operator at Gamblin was laughing so hard! My dog is fine; I don't know about my palette. Maybe I've discovered a new medium for oil paint. Hmmm...

Renee Price

Renee,

Years ago when my daughter was about two, I was painting on the patio outside with my daughter toddling about. When I turned back to my paints my daughter was drinking my turp! Not wanting to underreact, or react normally, I swooped her up and dashed across the busy street in front of my house to the doctor's house. I then screamed what had happened. He took her into the bathroom and tried to make her throw up. None of that worked, so I threw her into the car with the rest of the family in tow, and went to the emergency room. By now she was starting to nod off! Not because she was sleepy. I was really getting panicked. Then what made it worse they just ignored us at the emergency room. I finally jumped up and made a really big scene, and a doctor came out and told me that she was not going to die and that the effect would be like that of a sedative. She's now seventeen and tell her that she can thank me for her ability to stay thin.

Mike,

That was scary! I'm glad your daughter was OK!

Renee

Cad red
 

One of my students in MN said once when there was lots of fresh snow on the ground, her dog ate most of her cad red, got it all over himself and then went out into the fresh snow of her front yard to try to wipe it off himself. The Fed-Ex man that showed up that afternoon rather thought something very dangerous had happened at the home. Bright red smears all over the front lawn.

Yep, the dog was fine.

Feline made a bee-line
 

On July 4th I visited a friend of mine in Mich. Early one morning I was teaching him some painting techniques when his cat jumped up on the table and stepped into serveral puddles of paint. We yelled, the cat ran down the hall into a bedroom leaving umber/cadmium/ocher stuff footprints. We spent the rest of the day practicing cleaning techniques.