Meet The Real Life Piggy -- No -- Doggy Bank! Jack Russell Swallows 111 Pennies
March 15 2013, Published 4:29 p.m. ET
A naughty little Jack Russell gave his owner a scare last week when he started vomiting blood and spewed up a few coins!
Thirteen-year-old Jack was taken to Blue Pearl Veterinary Partners in New York where an X-ray revealed the chunk of change in his tummy.
And during a two-hour operation they removed a whopping total of 111 pennies -- 5 cents at a time!
Jack’s owner Tim Kelleher, 49, told ABCNews.com: “He’ll eat anything he can get himself into, whether it’s garbage or whatever.
“He was trying to get into a bag of bagels and knocked over the change on my desk.
“When he went to lick up the crumbs, he licked up the pennies at the same time. Then, 111 pennies later…”
He also told the New York Daily News : “He’s like a voracious Tasmanian devil – if there’s food, he’s got to get it.”
After the successful operation Kelleher told Amy Zalcman, the doctor who performed the operation to keep the change.
Nearly a week later little Jack is back to normal -- Kelleher says: “He’s more than OK. He’s right back to himself.
“He’s loving all the attention and jumping all over the place.”
It was a lucky escape for the super cute canine because pennies minted after 1982 are mainly made of zinc, which can damage a dog’s kidneys, liver and red blood cells.
Dr. Zalcman told the NY Daily News: “If Jack would not have had the pennies removed the consequences would have been fatal.”
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