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Adorable Leeds pup Alfie gobbles car key
Vets had to operate when Alfie the cocker spaniel started to feel a bit 'ruff' ' after he gobbled up his owner's car key.
A startling X-ray picture shows the intact beeper key just moments before mischievous Alfie had to undergo dramatic 'keyhole' surgery to remove it.
New Leeds mum Charlotte Hanson, 27, was left stranded last Thursday when she accidentally dropped the key to her Peugeot and it was quickly snaffled by the hungry ten-month-old pup.
Adorable Alfie, who has already had a trip to the vets after eating socks belonging to Charlotte's seven-week-old baby son Victor, was back there again but this time, thanks to his unusual eating habits, he had to go under the knife.
In an hour-long operation on Friday, Laurence Doddy at Shipley Veterinary Centre, managed to cut the three-inch metal key from Alfie's
stomach.
The silly spaniel spent the weekend at home in Leeds recovering from his self-inflicted ordeal.
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Nurse Charlotte, who lives with husband Adrian, 30, said: 'I'd just come home from visiting my mum with Victor. My hands were full trying to unstrap Victor from his car seat and the key just slipped out of my hand.
"Alfie was there in an instant. I think he thought it was some kind of game. I just panicked. I tried for ten minutes to prise it out of his mouth but I just couldn't get it. In the end I grabbed a piece of sausage to tempt him to open his mouth but he just swallowed both in one gulp."
Frantic Charlotte called her husband Adrian, an MD of a joinery firm, at work for help.
The doting dad said: "Alfie must have thought it was a fun game Charlotte was playing. He's been playful and hyperactive since we first got him as an eight-month-old puppy.
'She phoned me at work and I thought 'he can't have done that' but he had."
Charlotte said: "Luckily we have a spare set of car keys so I wasn't that worried about not being able to drive.
"But I had a restless night worrying that the remote lock on the key would get squeezed in Alfie's intestines so we kept taking turns to see if the car doors were still locked. Luckily they were."
The couple thought they would let nature take its course after Alfie swallowed the key but the next morning they began to worry when he started to show discomfort and they phoned an emergency vet.
He was rushed in and put under general anaesthetic for the tricky operation.
Charlotte said: "Once we had the call to say they had got the key back and Alfie was safe and well I managed to joke to Adrian asking if he thought the vets would have performed 'keyhole' surgery.
"He's got a big scar and has been a bit upset by the cone he's wearing now but he's going to be fine."
The dog loving mum also revealed that they had been forced to cancel an
appointment with obedience school Bark Busters, which had been arranged to help Alfie's jealousy problems since the arrival of little Victor.
She said: "Ever since Victor was born he's been a bit more naughty than usual so we had a training session booked for him to help him get used to the new member of the family.
"He'll do anything for attention at the moment so I can't help but wonder if swallowing the car key was another ploy by him. Thank goodness I wasn't on my way out somewhere.
"We'll rearrange another session for him but until then we're making sure that we don't drop anything on the floor."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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