http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat...10-fetch_x.htm

Fetch goes wrong: 18-inch dog swallows 16-inch stick

LONDON (AFP) — In a feat that put human sword swallowers to shame, a British dog managed to gulp down a stick only two inches shorter than its own body, and escape unscathed, a report said Thursday.
Millie, a two-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier, swallowed the stick by accident while on a walk with her owner, John Hurst, in fields behind his home in Portsmouth, southern England, the Daily Mail newspaper said.

Hurst threw the 16-inch stick for Millie to retrieve, but it stuck in the ground like a javelin and the sprinting dog managed to effectively impale herself on it, swallowing it whole.

Fearing the worst, Hurst rushed his pet to a vet, where micro-cameras found the stick had somehow worked its ways down Millie's throat and deep into her stomach without hitting any vital organs on the way.

After a two-hour operation, the only injury to Millie was a small scratch inside her stomach, the report said.

Dogs receiving treatment for swallowed sticks was common, vet Matthew Tyler told the newspaper.

"But for a dog to get a stick stuck this far down is unheard of," he added.