You know, dogs are smarter than most people give them credit for. Granted they do a lot of dumb things, but I was impressed by Riley’s actions yesterday.

I got home just after 6:30 and received my usual greeting from the boy.  Not to be confused with my son… the “boy” is the dog.  So after wagging his tail profusely and trying to jump up and say hello, Riley took off upstairs.  This is very odd for him.  In fact, this is first time I can recall him leaving the same room Anne or I are in once arriving home until one of us lets him out or grabs his leash to take a walk.

As I watched him run upstairs, I noticed Riley stopping to sniff and look and around.  I thought perhaps he had one of Matthew’s toys, or at least something that he shouldn’t be playing with.  After calling him to come downstairs a few times with no luck, I ventured up to see what he was into.

Low and behold – IT HAD ARRIVED.  It wasn’t what he was into, it was what came out.

Ouchie!

For those of you not keeping up at home… a couple of weeks ago Riley found some trouble at the park.  He devoured a tennis ball. Along with the tennis ball reappearing was a ziploc plastic bag that he managed to swallow the following weekend at the park.  Lastly, there were pieces of a plastic ball (think Kickball material), that he also munched on at the park.  I think I am sensing a theme here. Riley had a regular toy room going on in his upper and/or lower stomach.

After throwing up these items and some liquids, I imagine Riley had to feel immediate relief.  But when he was standing next to the pile of goods, I felt like he was proud to show me what he had accomplished.  “Look what I did Dad.” There he was sitting quietly watching me clean up the mess. The smell was bad… but it was good to have all of these foreign objects out of his body. Part of me had given up that we would ever see the ball again, without surgery.

I’m amazed and I guess a little lucky that the food was able to continually pass thru his system and everything kept moving along. Two and a half weeks is a long time to have a bulging ball stuck inside of you… amongst other things.

Just a few hours later, the boy was back to his usual shenanigans. Quickly shredding apart a loofa he found sitting in the tub upstairs before we could get it away from him.  And today more of the same with hiding the remote control outside.  Oh the fun never stops.  But we are glad to have him back to his usual self!