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Worried about your cat and poinsettia? Don’t be

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There are plenty of reasons to keep your pet under close surveillance during the holiday season, but poinsettia plants need not be one of them.

Poinsettias, according to the ASPCA, are ‘in actuality not the deadly flowers that popular legend has made them out to be.... The myth of the plant’s toxicity began in the early part of the 20th century when the 2-year-old child of a U.S. Army officer was alleged to have died from consuming a poinsettia leaf.’

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It’s still a wise move to keep poinsettias away from your cat, though -- they can cause gastrointestinal upset (just not the fatal poisoning effects of old wives’ legend).

For a list of 17 common plants that are poisonous to pets, head on over to the ASPCA’s animal poison control information center.

-- Lindsay Barnett

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