Anyone who has ever had a dog will know they are not picky eaters. When it comes to normal dog food some dogs will only eat the finest selection, however, when it comes to anything else, most will happily eat human food or small objects. While most dogs eat a selection of random balls and other items, it is usually not a cause for alarm. When Shelby Perry’s dog ate her engagement ring, it was reason to panic.
Shelby owns a beautiful pug named Patrick. Patrick is two years old and has a little trouble controlling his weight. Shelby admits that she and her fiance do spoil him a little bit but they love him so much they can’t help it. She often jokes that it is Patrick’s world and they are just lucky enough to live in it. However, in recent months Patrick had started to put on a little weight. Shelby decided he needed to go on a diet and started to become strict with his meals. While Patrick was starting to lose weight he was also eating anything he could, if there was any food on the floor he would hoover it up immediately.
One day Shelby was braiding her own hair. Her fiance had given her an especially large engagement ring with a large sapphire in the center and diamonds on the side. It is incredibly beautiful and Shelby loves it, but when braiding her hair, it does get in the way. She took off the ring and put it on her nightstand while she continued to work on her hair. Moments later she saw that Patrick was making a motion with his mouth as if he was trying to swallow. Like any good pet owner and like so many of us have done before, she immediately ran over to her little pug and asked him to show what he was eating. Before she could grab him, he ran away with a kick in his step. He thought they were playing a game of chase.
Shelby continued to run around the house trying to catch Patrick but she had no luck, she assumed then that he was perhaps just pretending to swallow something so that he could get a chase, something he had done before. Then, horror-struck. She returned to the nightstand to get her ring and it was no longer there.
It was clear that Patrick the Pug had swallowed the engagement ring! Shelby rushed him to the vet for an X-ray to confirm her fears. The X-ray showed up a bright circle with a lovely rock on top, the ring was found. In most cases when a dog eats something small, about the size of a ring, you can simply wait for them to pass it later. However, the sharp sides of the ring meant that this option was too dangerous. The diamonds and sapphires could cut the insides of poor little Patrick and he could die. Instead of surgery, the vet suggested that they try an endoscopy. The procedure meant putting a large tube inside Patrick to try and get the ring. It was a success. Although any success that costs $2,500 is not much of a success.
Whatever the cost, Shelby was delighted. She had her pug in perfect health and her ring returned. When she looked at the ring she noticed that the sapphire and a diamond or two were missing. Luckily she had a lifetime warranty on the ring so she knew that the rocks would be replaced at no additional charge. If this story doesn’t convince you to get your engagement ring insured, nothing will.
