How long does it take for dollars to go through a dog?

[haele]

The kidlet was counting her cash and left about $45 (2 twenties and a five) along with some other bills in an old plastic cup on the coffee table next to her African beans, mullet and greens eat out container last night before she went to bed (long after I had gone to bed). When I woke up in the morning, I found two small peices of a five, half a twenty, and a ripped apart container of her beans and greens and the cup, slightly bashed, on the floor.

At first, I thought she had one of her usual materialistic teenage bipolar tantrums (long story, won't get into it) and ripped apart the money in a fit of pique after her dad gave her a talking to last night. Since she hasn't come up with the rest of the bills, the next suspect is the dog, who at 12 has more than a bit of senile dementia and has become very food agressive - and will eat paper if there's any hint of food on it.

My guess is the container was dumped on the cup with bills, the dog ate the food, and then ate whatever money might have gotten sauce on it. Luckily, she doesn't do a lot of chewing unless it's crunchy, sooo....
how long do we have to wait, going out behind her with the hose on high power?
$45 is a lot of money, after all, and we aren't going to "replace" the money she left out along with the food for the dog to go crazy on - esepcially since this isn't the first - or even the tenth - time she's left things out for the dog to eat after she's been reminded Shari will do this, being old, anxious, and forgetful. We will, however, recover whatever we can find, clean and tape it up, then turn it into the bank for replacement.

Haele

[Lyric]

1. Wow.

That is the oddest post I've read all day.

My Mom's Pom mix ate my brother's money once. Unfortunately it wasn't in any condition to piece back together by the time it made its way back out.

[haele]

2. Kick because the kid is taking this very hard -

Should it be a few days, a week? Do we funnel mineral oil down her throat or give her a laxitive?

I know there was an article last year about a dog that ate around $750 and the family managed to recover around $600, from what I remember. (or was it $1K and they recovered $900?) Hopefully, we can recover around $25. She's a medium sized dog and when she does rip and eat paper, she tends to eat 2 - 3" pieces.

Haele

[KG]

3. what if the doggie makes change?

[AngryOldDem]

4. I would think that you would see something in a day or so.

And it probably won't be worth taping up.

I had an Airedale terrier that got ahold of a bag of Starburst fruit chews. He must have had a cast-iron stomach -- but they went through him in a hurry and we found a lot of wrapper evidence in bits and pieces not too soon after he had his "snack."

Happy hunting.

[quakerboy]

5. Ouch. Maybe he can act as a change machine

Quarters are so much easier to clean.

A friend had something similar happen, and it took about 24 hrs for bits to show up. Unfortunantly in their case, it was a several hundred dollar sports card, so recovery was.. not worth the effort. Good luck.

[haele]

6. Here's what $45 looks like after it went through a dog -

and was, well, laundered. (I'm a dirty jobs type of gal)


Ol' Abe with about 1/3 of his bill still intact (left on the floor, not eaten) I figure I managed to recover about 80% of the bill, including all four corners.



As you can see, there was originally only about 2/3 of one of the 20's uneaten. I figure we recovered since we recovered at least 3 corners worth for the completly eaten bill as well as at least around 90% of each bill it counts for at least $40 of legal tender.

The serial numbers are good on all three bills. So I think they'll be acceptable, especially since they don't have any doggie residue (other than a slight discoloration on a couple pieces) left on them.

When they dry, I'll tape them up and take them to the bank to see if they'll replace the bills. So the kid may still get to go to Comi-con this summer and have a bit of spending money. Now her grades are pretty much the only issue with that (sigh)

She is also learned to be a little less " kooky/artistic" on how she takes care of her "special" items (a nice, thick recycled embossed cardboard gift money mailing envelope tucked in one of the letter slots on her desk) - no more wadding money up in an collector's plastic cup where bills can fall out if knocked over and get covered with sauce when she's in one of her lazy sloppy moods.
Kooky/Artistic is great most of the times, but you still have to be somewhat aware and sensible when taking care of things you need. It's that crazy "balance and moderation" thing that always seems to come around and bite you in the butt when you start thinking that you can do whatever you feel like and no one can say "boo".
Some teenagers have a hard time with that concept - and since I can't "criticize" - (that is, talk like an adult) - to her without starting a fight, ya'll get to hear what I want to get into her wannabe "emo/intellectual/Paris Hilton/angry artist" head right now.

Haele

[FloridaJudy]

7. If you can get the whole serial number taped together

A bank should be able to replace it. I know this because a colleague once accidentally put a $50 bill through the shredder.

[haele]

8. All three bills have the serial numbers pretty much complete -

in fact, the numbers in both locations on all the bills are clearly visible.

Thanks for the info! I'm getting more hopeful about this incident as things go on. Especially since all the money the dog had eaten was a gift "for good grades" from her grandfather, and there's no way we can afford to replace it.

Perhaps this was Kharma for her telling her charter school teacher Wednesday that the dog tore up ten of her lessons - why she didn't complete all 15 lessons this grading period. Hmmmm...

Haele