Veterinarians in the Boston area got more than they bargained for last week when an scan revealed that a hungry pup named ‘Mocha’ had swallowed not one, not two, but THREE watches.
Mocha’s owner Jeff Courcelle returned home from work on Thursday to find his guilty Doberman Pincher surrounded by a pile of screws and leather watch straps, having pulled down a box of timepieces which he had (incorrectly) assumed was out of her reach.
Fearing for his five-year-old pooch’s health, Courcelle immediately called his wife, Michele Parkinson, and the pair rushed Mocha to a 24-hour emergency hospital – the MSPCA’s Angell Animal Medical Center – where a veterinarian began a 3-hour endoscopy to investigate the damage.
However, nothing could prepare the pair for what they found in Mocha’s belly.
When describing the scene, Parkinson said:
“It just looked like a Christmas tree and I almost threw up”
Among the items removed were a pound of leather straps, metal pieces and related detritus, as well as other bits which the vet was confident would be passed naturally.
Mocha isn’t the only pup scoffing seemingly unappealing household items. Rob Halpin, of the MSPCA said:
“We’ve taken every imaginable thing that could fit down the gullet of a dog out with surgery. There’s some evolutionary traits that some dogs have that lead them to eat first and think later … and some of them are so food motivated that anything with a scent could be associated with food, and they go for it.”
