The craziest thing dogs ate

The horse may be the state animal, but there’s only 23,000 of them. In New Jersey there are 1,380,000 dogs. Make no mistake. In a largely suburban place like New Jersey, we’re a dog state.

That sometimes comes at a cost.

Our dog Finn is now over a year old and his behavior has improved to the point I thought I no longer had to hide my shoes from him. Today I found out I was wrong. I was upstairs for about 20 minutes and came down to find my shoe unwearable. He hasn’t just chewed the shoe as you can see in the picture. There were no missing pieces strewn about. Meaning he also ate it.

This dumb but lovable dog ate anything when he was a puppy. Just last week I stood in shock seeing a small squishy sensory type toy that belonged to my son was in his mouth. I told him to drop it and as I reached for him, instead of dropping it he swallowed it whole.

He swallowed it whole.

I just about threw up as I imagined how that would play out from a gastrointestinal perspective.

We asked our dog-loving listeners what the craziest thing their best friend ate was and here are some of the more bizarre answers.

By far the best call we had was from Denise who owned an English bull dog. She took the dog to work every day on a 45 minute ride. The dog decided to alleviate its boredom by tearing up her entire backseat. She says she heard some movement but never realized what was happening until she parked and got out. The entire back seat was toast. The car? A Lexus 570 worth some $80,000. It gets better. She continued bringing her dog to work. Why? Because it had separation anxiety and if she left it home it would have eaten her entire house.

Isabel called with a story ending with a tough decision. She had just gotten engaged and had her diamond ring off her hand resting on a bathroom counter as she showered. The dog got to it, and swallowed it whole. When she told her fiancé he didn't believe her, thinking this was a crazy cover story for her having lost it somewhere. But two days later, when he was walking the dog, let's just say he found out the gross was that she wasn't lying. It was recovered. Her decision? Don't ask for a new ring; just clean it, keep it and wear it. Ewwww.

Anne Marie went through a divorce and apparently her dog never liked the bum. Or maybe liked him too much and was mad he was gone? As soon as he moved out of the house and his side of the bed was empty, her dog attacked it nightly until there was a six foot gorge in the mattress. But never Anne Marie's side; only where the ex had slept.

Angela called with a timely one considering Christmas is coming up. Every year when she puts up her tree she can only start the ornaments at the halfway up mark. That's because her Wheaton Terrier will snack on whatever ornament it finds, even the glass ones. It will chew them right up like dog biscuits. There's no stopping the beast.

How these dogs can eat these things and live I'll never know.

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