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By Joel Fulton
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
After Omahan Dennis Bullaro, 65, and his mother, Marie, 90, finished a roast dinner a while back, their cockalier Toby got the remaining round bone.
The year-old cocker spaniel and Cavalier King Charles spaniel mix chewed and played with it for two months. He would fling it into the air and catch it in his mouth. He would drop it on the ground and roll over it to scratch his back.
But all the fun and games ended when Toby managed to get the bone stuck around his front teeth and lower jaw, covering his snout and forcing a trip to an emergency veterinary clinic.
Now the story of the pup's bad luck has him in the running for the Veterinary Pet Insurance Co.'s first Hambone Award.
The company says most of the 1 million claims it handles each year are for common pet conditions or routine care. But, a company spokesman said, a every now and then a claim comes up that reminds everyone just how unexpected pet accidents can be. And the award idea was born.
The award name was inspired by the case of a dog that got stuck in a refrigerator and ate an entire Thanksgiving ham while waiting to be let out. The dog was freed with a full belly and a mild case of hypothermia.
When the bone given to Toby became wedged back on April 26, the dog jumped and shook, but the bone wouldn't budge.
Dennis tried removing it, but that scared Toby even more. So they headed to Omaha's Animal Emergency Clinic at 96th Street and Mockingbird Drive.
“When they set him on the observation table the nurses started laughing,” Bullaro said. “It wasn't funny to me. Toby was going crazy.”
The veterinarian had to anesthetize Toby and use a hacksaw to cut and then remove the bone.
Of more than 75,000 claims in May, VPI employees chose Toby's accident as the most interesting submitted that month.
Dennis' claim will be matched against the best claims from other months, and in September the public will have a chance to select the first-ever winner of the Hambone Award.
The winning pet and owner will receive a trophy in the shape of a ham.
The insurance company suggests that pet owners refrain from giving their pets leftover bones, but Dennis still gives them to Toby. Just no more round bones.
“My advice is to keep round bones away from pets,” Bullaro said. “The veterinarian said Toby was the third or fourth dog the clinic had seen with a round bone stuck on its snout, which surprised me because I never thought it would be a problem.”
Contact the writer:
444-1304, joel.fulton@owh.com
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