"More than a thousand pets suffer each year because they get into seemingly innocuous household items," says Steven Hansen, of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Animal Poison Control Center. Here are some hazards to watch out for. You can find more good advice about pets at the Good Housekeeping Web site, goodhousekeeping.com:

Sugar substitutes

If your dog steals a diet cookie, call a vet. Xylitol - a sweetener used in many sugarfree candies, chewing gums, baked goods and toothpastes - can cause low blood sugar and liver damage in dogs, reports a study published last year in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. And it doesn't take that much xylitol to create problems: The study found that when a 22-pound dog ingests just a gram of the stuff, it should be treated by a vet.

Onions and garlic

They contain disulfides - sulfur compounds that can cause gastrointestinal irritation to pets and harm their red blood cells. "One year, at Passover time, I treated a dog with severe anemia," recalls Ann Hohenhaus, chair of the department of medicine at the Animal Medical Center in New York City. "It turned out she'd eaten too much of Grandma's chopped liver, which was loaded with onions and garlic."

Tip: Don't let your pet stick his snout in the trash. "If an animal comes across a leftover roast covered with onions, he thinks, 'Bonus!' " says Hohenhaus. "The next thing you know, he's vomiting all the way to the ER."

Grapes and raisins

"We're not sure why they're so toxic to dogs, but they can trigger gastrointestinal problems like vomiting and diarrhea, or, more commonly, kidney failure," says Karen Halligan, director of veterinary services at the ASPCA of Los Angeles and author of Doc Halligan's What Every Pet Owner Should Know.

Pennies

While a pooch can choke on any coin, pennies are particularly dangerous because they're made with zinc, which is toxic to animals. (When a penny sits in your pet's stomach, the zinc leaches out into the red blood cells, resulting in severe anemia and kidney problems.) The newer the penny, the more likely it is to be deadly. That's because pennies minted after 1982 are 99.2 percent zinc; those minted earlier are only 5 percent.

Macadamia nuts

Dogs have become dramatically ill from ingesting just a handful of these. The nuts contain an unknown toxin that can upset your pet's digestive tract and muscles, setting off severe weakness (and sometimes paralysis), mild vomiting and diarrhea. The good news: Virtually all dogs recover within 48 hours of ingestion, whether or not they're treated by a vet.

Pine-oil cleaners

Scrub your floor with something else - the phenol in these products can cause serious liver damage in cats, says Hohenhaus. And it doesn't take much for a kitty to be exposed: Your fur ball might unknowingly lap up a spill - or just lick the wet stuff off her feet.

* On another matter: The Good Housekeeping Research Institute tested 23 digital cameras - all less than $400 - and found four that are picture-perfect. The Panasonic Lumix MDC-FX07 ($350, 7.2 megapixels) has the quickest consecutive snapshot speed for rapid picture taking. The most high-tech option is the Canon PowerShot SD800 IS ($400, 7.1 megapixels), which delivers features like an Orientation Sensor, which automatically rotates images right side up. Most lightweight and slim is the Casio EX-S770 ($300, 7.2 megapixels), which also offers a video setting. But the best overall is the Kodak EasyShare C875: It was the top performer in all tests and the least-expensive pick ($200, 8 megapixels).