Doggie treats

Puppy Swallows 13-Inch Knife, Survives

Sat Sep 24,11:51 AM ET
Jane Scarola's veterinarian thought the X-ray was a joke. He's seen strange items get into the stomachs of dogs before, things like kebab skewers and small utensils. But a 13-inch serrated knife that somehow was swallowed by a 6-month-old puppy?
That was a new one.
"I was just flabbergasted," the vet, Jon-Paul Carew of Imperial Point Animal Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Elsie, a Saint Bernard puppy, apparently had the blade between her esophagus and stomach for about four days before it was removed earlier this week in a 2-hour operation.
The puppy has an 8-inch scar, but is fine and back with her family. And the knife is back in Scarola's kitchen, albeit this time wrapped in a towel and placed in a cabinet atop the refrigerator.
"I'm going to frame it and give it to Dr. Carew," Scarola said. "He should hang it. Everybody should know what puppies are capable of putting down their throats."
Scarola used the knife to carve a turkey, and placed the blade on the counter — far from the edge.
She thinks one of her six other dogs — four Saint Bernards, a German shepherd and a Labrador — somehow got the knife, which eventually made its way to Elsie.
"She wants to eat everything and anything," Scarola said.

Information from: South Florida Sun-Sentinel, http://www.sun-sentinel.com


This story reminded me of the first time my buddy Chuck spent the night. Well, he lived with me for a while before this, but he slept in the back yard.

Upon his release form the Doggy Big House in Hayward, he was an outside room mate.

But one stormy night- lightning, thunder (or as Papa Tavares says “Tenders”) , and much rain I decided to give Chuckie a bath and let him stay the night in my room.

I turned off the TV and fell asleep.

About 2:00 am I was woke up by a screaming baby- as I have no kids this worried me a little.

This was followed by gunfire, a siren, rap music, a car chase and a crying preacher- it took a minute to realize that my TV was back on and switching channels all by itself.

The channels were flying by, the volume going from a whisper to top end.

At first, I thought it was demon possession, and, thinking how I’ve spent my life this was not out of line- then I saw Chuck- with my remote in his mouth, or, what was left of my remote in his mouth.
It was now just a jumble of plastic, rubber, and little pieces of circuit board.

He was munching and slobbering away, happy as a pig in slop- which was pretty close to the room décor anyway.

Chuckie lived outside for a long time after that.

In the months to follow he ate his dog house- a Dogloo brand- heavy-duty plastic. He didn’t just chew it up- he ate it. It was about 3 feet across and 2 ½ to 3 feet tall.

I only found a piece about 6 inches long in the dirt later- the rest was dissolved in his gut along with 7 shoes, 2 pairs of gloves, an old bulb style horn off a neighbors tricycle, one John Deer cap, a baseball mitt from 8th grade, the lining from a rain coat (the rest of the coat was unharmed, half a lemon tree, and the back seat from my ’76 Datsun .

But, eleven years later he’s still around.

But when he sits down hard I sometimes hear that horn honk.