[Reprinted from Trucker’s Report.com]

We found this article to be good stuff and we wanted to share it with readers. Thank you Caroline, a middle school student, for sharing this good information with your team! It eventually found it’s way to us via Coonhound Companions!

Traveling by Car or Truck with Pets

It’s almost Easter, and signs of Spring will soon be here! For most of us, the Easter holiday brings back many fond memories of chocolate treats, Easter egg hunts, colorful Easter baskets filled with goodies, and bunnies. But if you are a pet owner, please be careful if you have these Easter staples in your house, or in your neighbor’s yard, which can pose danger to the health of your dog or cat.

Continue reading….

http://www.whiskersitterstc.com/7-easter-pet-dangers/

(From the Contact Voltage Information Center Website)

“Contact Voltage is electrical current coming from damaged or faulty underground wiring that in  turn, energizes nearby objects and surfaces, like sidewalks, street lamps, manhole covers fire hydrants and even puddles.
These surfaces can deliver dangerous or deadly shocks!**

If you feel even the SLIGHTEST shock from an energized surface, call 911, contact your utility company AND
alert your public officials.

Visit the Contact Voltage Information Center Website online to learn more and find out if your utility company is taking proactive measure to  address this danger”    http://www.contactvoltageinfo.org/

** A few years ago a carriage horse in NYCity was electrocuted to death in the rain, when her metal horseshoes contacted a manhole-type cover under which was a loose, live wire.  http://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/09/nyregion/carriage-horse-is-electrocuted-on-street.html

By Emily Plishner, Houndsman

In wintertime, dogs can get in trouble by running out on thin ice. Warm days can weaken ice on frozen ponds. Even in very cold weather, rapidly flowing water will not freeze completely, ice along tidal coasts will break up with tide changes, and uncovered holes in solidly frozen surfaces can prove to be traps for dogs. Once they’ve fallen through thin ice, dogs can have trouble climbing out again. Carry rope and a change of clothes in your vehicle for emergency rescues—you can tie one end of the rope to a tree or other solid anchor and the other to your waist when going to the rescue, affording you a way to climb back out of icy water.

Read a true story about a dramatic rescue of a dog that went through thin ice.

See a video clip of the above story.

My coonhound Clamour, 75 lbs., once ran over thin ice and ran onto a beaver lodge to bark at a raccoon on an evergreen branch overhanging it. I knew the ice was too thin to support me and I wasn’t sure the ice could support Clamour. I wasn’t even sure the beaver lodge would support him, and I knew it was occupied! I knew Clam wouldn’t even try to leave until the coon did, and I don’t carry firearms when I “hunt,” so I had to find another way to make the coon leave. Mind you, all this was in the dark of night, at least a mile from the nearest house. I lobbed snowballs at that coon for what seemed like hours before he retreated toward the tree trunk, Clam underneath him every inch of the way. Luckily, Clam didn’t fall through until the shallows, and was able to climb out on his own. He then proceeded to climb all over me and get me soaking wet. Now, I always keep along rope in my truck, and sometimes an ice grapple in thin ice weather. Just about every houndsman I know has had to wade into a partly frozen swamp at least once to rescue his dog. And none of them hesitate to do what needs to be done.