My plan was to take the dog for a walk around the lake. I practiced the uke for a while, set the tuner on an end table, put the uke away, and couldn't find my keys. After wasting a bunch of time not finding them, I decided to use the spare set. Went to the garage, and what should I find near the steps but my tuner, in three parts, with telltale bite marks on each, but no battery!
I looked all over the house and garage for the battery and finally decided it must be inside the dog. I looked on the internet and apparently this is a thing. Dogs liking batteries. While this is a dog who barely likes kibble, who wants to take that chance? Called the vet, who said I would have to call the ASPCA pet poison control hotline--for $75. And here I thought the vet would either know that or call them themselves. So I negotiated that I would call the hotline if necessary after an X-ray determined whether the battery was actually in the dog.
Got in the car with the dog and the spare keys, and there were the real keys, in the ignition. And the car wouldn't start because I had left them on ACC all night and the battery was dead. Walked the dog to the vet. Came home, called Les Schwab, got the car jumped, which cost $20. But the Les Schwab guy noticed that one of my headlamps was burned out.
The vet called and there was no battery in the dog. The kind of good news you have mixed feelings about. Yes, it's not going to cost you money to get the battery out, but if you had found the battery, you wouldn't be paying for the X-ray in the first place.
Took the car to get the dog, stopped at Napa for a new headlamp--$40. X-ray cost $120. So with the replacement tuner I have to buy, it was a $200 day and every single cost, except possibly the headlamp, was due to my own carelessness! The X-ray doubly so, since I found the battery in the garage a few days later, and if I hadn't freaked out and had looked harder, I would have found it and saved all that.
There are so many morals to this story, but the main one is, don't leave your tuner where your dog can get it when it's bored waiting for you to find your keys. And don't leave your keys in the car--but that's for a different forum.
I looked all over the house and garage for the battery and finally decided it must be inside the dog. I looked on the internet and apparently this is a thing. Dogs liking batteries. While this is a dog who barely likes kibble, who wants to take that chance? Called the vet, who said I would have to call the ASPCA pet poison control hotline--for $75. And here I thought the vet would either know that or call them themselves. So I negotiated that I would call the hotline if necessary after an X-ray determined whether the battery was actually in the dog.
Got in the car with the dog and the spare keys, and there were the real keys, in the ignition. And the car wouldn't start because I had left them on ACC all night and the battery was dead. Walked the dog to the vet. Came home, called Les Schwab, got the car jumped, which cost $20. But the Les Schwab guy noticed that one of my headlamps was burned out.
The vet called and there was no battery in the dog. The kind of good news you have mixed feelings about. Yes, it's not going to cost you money to get the battery out, but if you had found the battery, you wouldn't be paying for the X-ray in the first place.
Took the car to get the dog, stopped at Napa for a new headlamp--$40. X-ray cost $120. So with the replacement tuner I have to buy, it was a $200 day and every single cost, except possibly the headlamp, was due to my own carelessness! The X-ray doubly so, since I found the battery in the garage a few days later, and if I hadn't freaked out and had looked harder, I would have found it and saved all that.
There are so many morals to this story, but the main one is, don't leave your tuner where your dog can get it when it's bored waiting for you to find your keys. And don't leave your keys in the car--but that's for a different forum.
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