Hard to Believe, But Not to Swallow…
Johnny-on-the-Spot
I ran across a news story recently about a 14 foot alligator killed in South Carolina.
Inside its’ stomach, folks found a spark plug, a bullet casing, bobcat claws, pieces of turtle shells along with 5 brass I-D tags from dog collars.
One South Carolina hunter said he lost his dog a quarter of a century ago in the area where this gator was caught.
Years ago, there was an alligator killed in Alabama that had a fully-intact female deer in its’ stomach, along with the carcasses of two squirrels.
Sometimes gators get gulped.
A big python was found after it had swallowed an entire alligator.
But sharks have even stranger diets.
A Tiger shark, caught off the Florida coast had it’s stomach full with several chickens…still in the coop!
Way back in 1554, it was well documented that a Great White Shark was found with an entire suit of armor, plus headgear inside it.
Other sharks have been found with a bag on money, a full bottle of wine, a fur coat and even a cannonball.
In 1935, a shark was found to have gulped the arm of a man with the tattoo of a boxer on it. Authorities discovered it was the arm of a fighter who had been missing several weeks. Police eventually arrested another man for dismembering the boxer and tossing his body into the the ocean.
But a Lake Trout was found with a severed thumb in its’ stomach.
A year prior, there was a boating accident and a man lost 2 fingers and his thumb due to a propeller mishap. The fingers were recovered and re-attached but not the thumb.
Now we know why.
When I was a youngster, we had a male Boxer named Duke.
Every morning before I went to school, I had to go down in the basement where Duke slept in a big baby carriage and clean up what he had eaten the night before.
Duke was especially fond of chunks of wood and bottle caps.
One night he got into a bucket full of hickory nuts that my Dad had collected.
That next morning, I cleaned up wood chips, bottle caps and pieces of hickory nuts.
Instead of moving the bucket of hickory nuts to a higher location, my Father set a mousetrap and put it in the hickory nut bucket.
The next morning, I cleaned up the usual wood chucks, bottle caps and hickory nuts plus a totally destroyed mouse trap.
Duke-1, Dad-0.
But Duke can’t hold a candle to some other dogs with interesting tastes.
(However, Duke might have eaten a candle at some time!)
A 6 month old Labrador pup cost his owner a $1,500 vet bill after filling his tummy with rocks.
Another Lab pup (Sax) ate his owners’ engagement ring.
(Guess who followed around that dog every time it had to go!)
After deflating it, Bracken the Lab wolfed down an entire soccer ball.
Another Lab pup wound up with the end of a fishing rod in his belly.
But it’s just not Labradors that gobble strange things down.
A 7 month old Staffordshire Terrier fought with another dog over a rubber duckie, so he won by swallowing it.
Yet another Staffordshire Terrier, 6 month old Kyle, all of 18 inches long, swallowed a 15 inch serrated knife.
A 10 month old Golden Retriever managed to swallow a Christmas light bulb and it wound up intact in the the pooch’s tummy.
Betty, the Bull Terrier developed a taste for a 10 1/2 inch arrow…swallowed hole.
Oscar, the Shih Tzu, on a walk along a pier, took a liking to a mackerel somebody had just reeled in so he gulped it down, along with the hook, line and sinker.
Speaking of long things, Hector, the Great Dane pup wound up with a 2 foot long stick stuck in his throat while Pip, the 5 month old Whippet pup, attempted a little magic when he swallowed a long, plastic fairy wand.
It’s just not pups who have strange tastes.
Ten year old Husky, Apache, ended up with a fork in his belly.
Nine year old Bulldog, Prince Edward, swallowed his owner’s set of false teeth ands there was an older Great Dane that gobbled up more than 40 socks
There was a Chihuahua found with 9 sewing needles inside while Roxy the Basset Hound ended up with more than 100 nails in his stomach.
I’m happy to say that all the aforementioned dogs recovered from their strange taste episodes.
We had a Boxer that ate an entire box of caramel-filled candy bars, foil wrappers and all, that our daughter was selling for a band fund-raiser.
This is the same dog that caused our other daughter to ask in the spring, “Hey Dad, how did this Christmas tree tinsel end up in the back yard?”
We all remember the stories of Jonah and the whale and Moby Dick so it should come as no surprise that different things end up in stomachs from time to time.
An ostrich at a London zoo was found to have consumed 2 handkerchiefs, a glove, a piece of rope, a coin, some staples and a hook.
Say!
Maybe the dog DID eat my homework!