Ay, Chihuahua!

Poor Paula Abdul. The kind-hearted judge of the hit reality TV show, American Idol, took a trip earlier this month —but not the kind you might think. She broke her nose and fractured a toe after tripping over Tulip, her chubby Chihuahua. And boy, has she been taunted about the tumble ever since. Stuart Heritage of Hecklerspray.com didn’t tiptoe through the tulips when he pontificated about Paula in his May 22^nd column:  “Paula Abdul doesn’t exactly do herself any favors, does she? After spending years vehemently fighting off claims that she’s a drunk, a legal fruitcake or both, Paula Abdul goes and breaks her nose on a Chihuahua and she’s back to square one again.”

Something tells me that Stuart’s not a lover of the four-legged set, or Paula Abdul for that matter. If he were, he might have asked if Tulip was hurt (she wasn’t) or perhaps offered to take Paula to the hospital. Instead, he smears the star for trying to protect her pooch from being pulverized. Shame on you, Stuart.

The more I thought about Paula’s predicament, the more I wondered how many people are injured each year after falling head over heels for their pet (in the literal sense, that is). I called the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta , Georgia. The organization is top dog when it comes to compiling health and injury information, but in this case, it fell short on the needed stats. So, I turned to Dr. Glenn Wollman, a former ER physician and the founder of “Living Suite” (www.livingsuite.net), a holistic medical practice in Santa Barbara, for answers. Dr. Wollman told me he treated fall victims “rather infrequently,” noting that many people might not have injured themselves severely enough to warrant a trip to the ER or may have sought treatment at an urgent care facility instead. On the occasions he did see a patient who had been hurt after tripping over their dog or cat, he said that “nearly 100% of the patients didn’t blame their pet.”

When you think about it, whom among us hasn’t taken a header over our hounds or fallen over Fluffy on the way to the bathroom in the middle of the night? I know I have. Repeatedly. I finally learned to shuffle my feet slowly whenever nature calls in the wee hours of the morning, thus avoiding the anything-but-graceful landing on top of a 10-pound ball of fluff, a.k.a. my cat, Miss Bella.

It’s one thing to trip over your tabby; it’s quite another to topple over your terrier.

It seems that no matter how careful we are, at some point the little darlings manage to wrap their leash around our ankles and knock us to our knees faster than a cowboy ropes and throws a calf to the ground. (Sorry about that analogy, but the rodeo is coming up and I’m already worrying about the poor animals who will be forced to “perform” for our “entertainment.”) But I digress…….

Back to Paula’s proboscis: Now that American Idol has wrapped up taping for the summer, perhaps Paula will take some time off, maybe do a little traveling. If so, I’d like to say to her:  Have a good trip, Paula. See you next fall….

 

Have you taken a trip (over your pet) lately? Let Karen know about it by sending her an email message at karenleestevens@cox.net.

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By Karen Lee Stevens,
Founder & President, ALL FOR ANIMALS, Inc.
Copyright © 2008. All Rights Reserved.

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