Last Saturday, boy wonder (Riley) managed to swallow a toy.  Not a small toy. NOPE. Essentially a tennis ball.  The best part (not really) was that it wasn’t even his.  We were at the dog park early, trying to burn off as much energy as possible.  Anne’s parents were headed into town and they are not exactly what one would call dog people.  In fact, Anne’s dad commonly refers to Riley as “friend, friend“.  And of course there was the time that Anne’s Mom managed to lock Riley in the basement.  They have come around as of late and I think deep down they really like the boy, although they will likely never admit it.  I mean come on, how could you not love this face.

The Puppy Face

So back to Saturday. There I am hanging out, trying to stay warm at 8:30 in the morning.  Chatting away with a few of the neighbors and I notice that Riley has wrestled away a Kong tennis ball from another one of the dogs.  I think little of it until he starts tearing away the felt off the ball.  I quickly apologize for Riley managing to destroy their toy in mere moments.  A few minutes go by and I notice that Riley has managed to rip the ball almost perfectly in two.  He is still chewing away on the ball and then it happens.

The toy quickly disappears from his mouth, down his throat.  A few of us look at each other and I am immediately shocked.  But then he pulls the move where he regurgitates it back up and starts chewing on it again.  I am relieved for an instant and move towards him to grab the shredded ball… and once again Riley pulls the magic trick and makes it disappear.  This time though there is no reappearance.  The toy has a new home.  Soon after, Riley decides to lay down, not paying attention to anything going on with dogs running all around him.  It looks like his iron stomach has finally met its match.

I plan to call the vet as soon as I get home.  That is, until his BFF Guinness makes his first appearance of the day.  I chat with Guinness’ owner and tell her what happened. She said her dog did the exact same thing not too long ago.  Immediately I feel better about the situation.  Guinness is also a black lab of almost the identical weight of Riley and they are just a few months apart in age.  Riley is back to playing and wrestling around with his buddies and things seem normal. Now in hindsight, perhaps I should have called the vet right away.  However, I thought I would see how things played out over the weekend.

But here we are 5 days later and there has been no return of the ball.  Each day it seems I am asking Anne if she has noticed anything unusual with Riley.  On Tuesday she informed me that she was examining his poop and thought she saw something.  She mentioned that the neighbors may have been watching her as she crouched down in the cold rain to analyze what she was about to pick up.  What a site that must have been with Matthew strapped to Anne in the carrier as she is holding onto Riley who is tugging away, all the while, trying to see what just came out of him.

However, the rubber did not meet the road.  We are still waiting for Riley to exorcise the demons.  The good news is there hasn’t been any blockage… things are still moving along.  The bad news is, our best friend has a foreign object inside of him.  The good news is, we don’t hear any squeaking coming from his insides.  The bad news is, our best friend has a foreign object inside of him.

We are going to give it through this weekend before reaching out to the vet. Hopefully nature will just takes its course.