Now that's an expensive meal!

A North Carolina woman is counting the cost of her dog's appetite.

A North Carolina family's dog didn't eat the children's homework, he ate mom's money. Kelley Davis said she had an extra $400 in cash to deposit after working extra hours as a physical therapist. She told the News & Observer of Raleigh that on Friday she planned to deposit the money, but it wasn't in her pocket.

She remembered leaving it in the bedroom and it occurred to her that the family's 2-year-old greater Swiss mountain dog, Augie, might have eaten it.

Davis, 42, said when she took Augie for a walk Saturday, she found parts of three $100 bills and five $20s in his leavings. She washed them with a garden hose and hopes to find enough pieces to exchange them for cash.

A professor at the North Carolina State University Veterinary School said the money shouldn't hurt the dog.

I'm sure we're all glad to know that, Professor . . . but if it had been a local dog, I think many of my neighbors would have reached for the shotgun, rather than waited for the banknotes to be even more digested by the time they came out!





Peter