Some of these incidents really sound like the results of poor or a lack of training.

My cat, so far, hasn't done anything to get himself hurt. He does like to chew on plastic for some reason. Like plastic bags, plastic wrap that clothes will come in if you order offline, etc. So my boyfriend and I have to take extra precaution to not leave anything like that laying around so an accident DOESN'T happen.

Gizmo also likes to push things off of flat surfaces like the bathroom sink or coffee table, so we also have to be careful about leaving a glass of water or anything breakable on there. It's annoying but sometimes funny because you see him reach for it and you say "NO!" and he will look straight into your eyes for a second and then reach his little paw out, while still staring you in the eye, and just push the thing right off anyway. Like a sarcastic little bastard.

He also likes to chew up paper towels and toiet paper. Sometimes I come home and there is a stretch of TP coming from the bathroom, down the hall, and into the living room.

I'm sure pet insurance isn't cheap but I am really glad the people that can afford it care enough about their pets to do so. It hurts me when I read (all the time here in Pittsburgh) about animals that were intentionally hurt by their owners. If you don't love 'em, don't get 'em!

My dogs have never really done anything stupid, but I did have a dog whose stomach flipped. $3500 later-she survived. As wonderful as that dog was (she has since pass away) I would spend it again. If pet health insurance were more afforable I would consider it, but since I have 3 dogs, even $20/month per dog strains the budget.

My sister discovered that my dog thinks cattle are just really big dogs. While he was visiting my sister's ranch, he tried to play with them. Luckily he's trained well enough to come back on command or he would have gotten a bull by the horns. It was a close call and we now always have to watch him around the cattle.

I had a beagle that ate half of the stuffing of a recliner, a tube of mascara and a small tube of eye cream... on the same day! That was the most expensive pet I ever had. No insurance. You'd think I learned from that, but no...

Cat #1 runs outside every chance she gets, no matter how careful we are to keep her inside. One day she comes back with a punctured hole on her leg that requires stitches, a drain, and several days of hospitalization to keep her from chewing the drain - since she actually managed to get her cone of shame off twice. They nicknamed her Houdini. Price: $600. Husband and I discuss insurance. Start research, go back and forth debating plans. In the meantime, Cat #2 escapes and comes back with a deep bleeding gash on her stomach. Price: $500.

After that, we got pet insurance so fast your head would spin. Of course, no incidents since then.

My beloved, Gay (yes he was!) Orange Weaver Finch, Louis (named for Crazy Louie from the movie Jungle Book), stabbed himself in the chest with his own beak and couldnt get it out... twice. The first time I was home, figured out what was wrong and helped him... he actually drew blood on himself! The second time my wife was home alone and I was at work working overnite. She called me in a dead panic and I talked her through it, again he even drew blood. We tried keeping his beak trimmed but... BTW Louis lived to a ripe old age and was a very happy bird. Im fear he picked up from me... I had an old civil war sword and left it on the couch. It slipped into the cushions and I didnt notice... and stabbed myself in the back with it when I sat down (and have never lived it down!). It was years before we got Louis but he had bonded to me and decided I was his... really fear he picked it up in the bonding!

Years ago I had a dog Falla that ate a tube of supper glue that had her mouth glued shut.... I think it was about a $400 dollars trip..... so be carefull where you leave that stuff 

OK, not on topic here, but seriously, you have to pet proof your home. No tinsel in the Christmas tree, put away the needles and thread, make certain the toys you give your pets won't choke them, keep them inside when using dangerous power tools ( how in the world did some owner let their pet close enough to a running chain saw to get injured?) Taking precautions doesn't mean they will never find some way to get injured, but they really are like toddlers, you have to think and look at the world at their level and pet proof your home.

I am a aliitle more informed now.... but then I was 18 and just married and working on a project and set the glue down for just a min and thats all it takes........ live and learn

our 6 month old australian cattle dog ate a pair of underware AND a pair of socks a week before our wedding, resulting in emergency surgery. he's now almost 2 and still finds socks, but we dont know where he's getting them from since he's banned from the bedroom. we swear he hides them and saves them for later. thankfully he's been throwing them up now. and scrunchies... he LOVES my scrunchies.

our 4 year old australian shephard once almost did a back-flip trying to catch a piece of ice. however she was on a wood floor and slipped and ripped her dewclaw out. that was a bloody mess.

I once had a dog we took camping. The first time she saw a campfire, she thought it was a living thing and licked it in a friendly manner. Poor baby had a red tongue.

Suddenly, it seems like making sure Spirit always has a rawhide chew was a good idea. She's the dumbest German Shephard I've ever met. But I love her goofiness.

I also now understand why Thor kept eating walls and floors (and shoes while being worn) wasn't that uncommon.

Thanks.

Had 2 dogs that played tug-of-war with snakes they came across.  They thought it was fun until they found a copperhead.  The dog that grabbed the head ended up at the vet for a week.  By the end of the summer, he had been bitten 7 times.  He never learned, but he did develop a good immunity.

Years ago I built a bird feeder tray that I suspended from a large tree branch in our yard.  It was too high off the ground for our cat to jump up to it, but he still managed to figured out a way to do it nonetheless.  I found this out when one morning I looked out the window and there was the cat sprawled on the tray just as content as it could be.  The problem was that he couldnt get back down, so my dad would have to get out the ladder.  This went on for a week or more, and we could not figure out how he was doing it until we saw him climbing the tree, walking across the branch to the rope where it was suspended, then jumping down the final three feet as only a cat can do.  It was his favorite perch until my dad grew tired of having to get the ladder out of the garage and had us take the feeder down.

I had a rescue dog named Ginger that was abandoned in someone's back yard when they moved away. Not sure how long she was alone, but after that, for her entire life with me (got her when she was about 1) she would be on the lookout for anything edible, just in case. (Food insecurity.) She ate the entire contents of my Xmas stocking (soap, chocolate, candles, candy cane) which required a vet visit. She constantly would find & devour underwear, UGH feminine hygiene products (had to get a garbage can with a lid that was really hard to get off), and could open zippers on backpacks, drawers, cupboards, etc. to find any food left inside. Also had to be creative with where I left the cat food, and bags of cat and dog food. Luckily for the most part she escaped unscathed. She passed last year, I still miss her so much.

My sisters dog was home alone for an hour one morning while the family went to church. Upon arriving home they discovered that their 1 year old labradoodle had ripped the baseboard heater apart and ate all of the super sharp aluminum fins within. $3000+ later he is a healthy 3 yr old dog. We all have pet health insurance now!

When i was a boy growing up on a farm in western Maine I had a beagle that was crazy about chasing rabbits. One summer day while my Grampa was mowing the hay field Buddy chased a rabbit in front of the mowing machine and it sliced off all four of his legs. Buddy healed but from then on I had to carry him around in a wheelbarrow and whenever he would spot a rabbit he would run me to death.

All I know is, Jack Russells think they are invincible.  My half-Jack thinks she can take on any size dog, the vaccuum cleaner, and would, I am sure, fearlessly try to take down a tiger if faced with one.  I love that dog.

We had a lab several years ago that decided to snatch one of two breakfast pastries that was sitting on the stove defrosting on Christman morning. These were big long pastry loaves that were filled with fruit filling. As we were in the livingroom opening presents on Xmas morning, Murphy (the dog) took one of the pastries and ate the whole thing. Now what we thought was unbelieveable is that Murphy didn't blow up. As the day wore on and the dough inside her rose, she got bigger and bigger and bigger. She was so miserable, and we thought it was so funny! If it hadn't been Xmas morning, I may have come close to killing her! She also survived eating an entire bag of Hersheys kisses, foil and all. She apparently had a strong stomach!

I thought it was bad when Maggie, my yellow Lab-Golden Ret (puppy) & Max ( Black Lab & Husky mix) each ate a large Rhodie bush, leaves, flowers & branches at different times. I thought it might be boredom, except we had toys & each other. BUT Maggie one upped Max when she ate all the vintage wood & 50's plastic ornaments on the Christmas tree on the bottom branches - I was afraid she would break the old glass ones. To top off her eating that day she ate a bag of tea lights, candle, wick & metal. The vet said we could do surgery, but he was afraid we wouldn't get everything, so she passed everything safely - how she was either blessed or lucky or both. That was 14 years ago, 4 pairs of shoes, 6 stuffed bears (eyes only) scores of beanie babies & my husbands insoles. Luckily I find solace in my cats that do nothing screwy.

The only thing my dog has ever done to endanger himself was steal a calcium chew when my mother dropped the bag of them in her room upstairs. He took off and ran downstairs and ended up under the dining table, which is where he goes to either eat his doggie treats or when he's scared.

My mother yelled down to me that she thinks he grabbed one, and sure enough, when I was able to capture him, he had tried to swallow the thing whole, wrapper and all - however - it literally got stuck, being chewy and all, on one of his back teeth and he couldn't close his mouth and was having problems breathing by the time I got to him. I had to stick one finger down his throat and curve it and then use my thumb to grab the chewy and pulled and pulled until it came off his tooth and I finally got it out. It really was pretty far back in his mouth.

I'm sure had I not been able to get to it, he could've died from lack of being able to breathe. He usually is not one to steal anything that's dropped, he's pretty good at looking at us first for permission before he does take anything, so that was weird on his part. Don't have pet insurance, but have thought about it. He's only 6, so who knows what the future holds??

He's very well trained, though he does also love eating Kleenex when they're either left out on a side table or in the trash when he can get to them (he's a chihuahua). The worst part of that is usually in the bathroom during me and my daughter's "women's cycle" and he digs and pulls it all out from the garbage can. Truly gross. Gotta keep remembering to keep the bathroom door shut at all times!

My husband and I received a case of wine for a Christmas present. We had no idea how closely our golden retriever was watching us uncork a bottle. The next day when we came home from work, he was no where to be found. I panicked when I saw an empty bottle of wine in the middle of our living room floor with the cork chewed out. Our dog was later found...knocked out drunk in the middle of our bed. The vet said "let him be.....but he will have one hell of a headache in the morning!"

When I was a kid I had a dog named Bert, who stole a still hot ham out of the neighbors car as they were packing up to go to a potluck at their church. We helped rescue the ham from the dog (who had taken several large bites out of it before we could get to it.) Our neighbor than cut off the dog ravaged parts and still served it the potluck.

We had a three legged dog with one eye, no tail and half an ear chewed off...his name was Lucky...

One comment left was a lack of proper training for these incidences. I have to laugh at that comment because if you are a pet owner, you know that whether you train a dog or not, they have a mind of their own and can do some crazy stupid things. Some are unbelievable and some just plain funny. Alot easier (sometimes) to deal with than those teenage children that you instill values in as best as you can and they too have a mind of their own and will surprise you with the crazy and stupid things they do as well. :)