Today I decided to make myself some Trim Healthy Mama candy. I'm about out of erythritol and our Azure delivery was delayed (again) and now not coming till Friday, so I decided to proceed with xylitol. Which tastes fine but has a higher glycemic index. I melted some unsweetened Baker's chocolate, added the xylitol, but couldn't get it to melt. After about 10-15 minutes, I turned up the heat (it had been on my "warmer" burner so I moved it to a regular burner). Went to do something and came back and the chocolate had "seized". So, I scraped it out of the pan, chunked it in the trash, washed the pan, and started over using stevia in the chocolate this time.
An hour later, Earl took the kids to church and I hear Buck (the collie) chewing something. And there was some plastic wrap from the trash. Oh no! I look and can't find the chocolate in the trash (and had taken it from him once before and put it BACK in the trash). I put on gloves and dig through the trash. No chocolate chunk to be found. I remember I have some aqueous activated charcoal I bought in case of a pet or child being poisoned, so I get that out. It comes in a tube like toothpaste and says "knead vigorously before using". I knead vigorously only to have the BACK end of the tube split and the stuff squirts everywhere. Using paper towels, I wipe it up, get an eye dropper, and start getting it out of the back end of the tube. I give the dog five droppers full of the stuff, much to his dismay.
Earl gets home, we eat dinner (no class tonight because his paper is due this week). I tell him of my adventures, we both stare at the dog. I get online and research xylitol poisoning and notice dogs have died from small pieces of xylitol sweetened gum. It causes massive hypoglycemia which can cause the liver/pancreas to fail. So, my rational side says maybe he needs some sugar to counteract that effect. I go get 1/4 cup of cane juice crystals and feed them to the dog who gives me more strange looks. Earl and I give him six more droppersful of the charcoal.
Earl decides to go through the trash one more time. And there, in the middle of some other stuff, is the whole hunk of chocolate that is NOT in the dog. Yep. So now I'm waiting to see if the dog is hyper tonight due to all the sugar I gave him.
