Intestinal Foreign Bodies...

Dogs are amazing when it comes to swallowing things. They can swallow items that appear to be four times the size of their esophagus and yet when you want to put a pill down them they run, fight, gag, drool, and spit up the medication. Stick a tiny pill in a yummy morsel and be amazed at the nimble dexterity of the canine tongue. Fido looks up at you grinning, his treat swallowed and your now semi-solid pill at your feet.

This morning we did the usual routine. Everyone is let out of their crates, runs out the back door, does their 'jobs', terrorizes the cats, and then they look for any inedible tasty morsels in the yard that might have been deposited or overlooked since last night. Okay, that's enough. So we come back in the house, everyone to their crate for a treat or new rawhide. This morning, Norma the English Bulldog, ran to her crate anticipating the CET rawhide chew that she saw me get "for her". She was grinning from ear to ear. She attacked the specialized dental treat with zeal. Four minutes later I hear a slight gag and a cough. Norma has swallowed it down whole. So much for the extra money I paid for an oral and dental hygiene product.

Sometimes I wish that humans had that ability. You know, be able to swallow large, and maybe not so palatable, things down whole so you don't have to go through the processes of cooking, cutting, and mastication.

Hmmm... but now that I think about it, maybe we already have this special canine ability. We already swallow a variety of large and unpalatable portions without scrutiny that some of the media dishes out to us every day.