What Would You Do If Your Dog Ate the Tickets to an Event You Were Dying to Attend?

Russ Berkman had won four Masters tickets to a practice round at the Augusta National. These are like gold to an avid golf fan. You can guess what happened next.

 |  Apr 4th 2012  |   12 Contributions

Imagine hugely looking forward to an event, and then discovering your dog ate the event tickets, which are pretty much not replaceable.

Russ Berkman had won four Masters tickets to today's practice round at the Augusta National. These are like gold to the avid golf fan. Of course, if they'd been gold, this story would end right here. No, unfortunately the tickets were a paper product, attached to string necklaces.

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The Seattle resident returned home from a shopping trip and found an unsettling scene.

“When I walked in the house, I noticed there was a few strings on my hardwood floors that appeared to be the strings on my Masters tickets,” Berkman said in an interview on radio station KJR. He looked at Sierra, his Greater Swiss mountain dog, and realized she had eaten the tickets as an appetizer.

Not wanting to have to fish out the remains of the tickets from the business end of Sierra several hours later, he opted to try to get them out of her in a slightly less gross way. He had her drink a combo of hydrogen peroxide and water, which acts as a non-toxic emetic. She threw up. Fortunately she hadn't eaten anything too recently (which may be why she went for the tickets!), so Berkman didn't have to sort through truly yucky stomach contents.

Sierra had really done a number on the tickets, shredding them into tiny little pieces before swallowing them. Berkman sloshed through the vomit and collected some 80 pieces, which made up about 70 percent of the actual tickets, and did his best to piece together the tickets. He took a photo as evidence, and contacted the Masters ticket office. 

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Good thing Berkman didn't have to wear this ticket
At first, the people he spoke with were incredulous. But fortunately, someone there knew what some dogs do for a hobby, and the tickets were reissued. He and three friends will be out there today, wearing their shiny new tickets around their necks. They'll surely be among the most grateful attendees. 

What would you do if your dog were to eat an irreplaceable ticket to something you were dying to attend? Would you make her throw up, or wait patiently for any undigested shreds to emerge from the other end and go on a little treasure hunt? Or would you just hope you could convince the ticket office that your dog really did eat your ticket, even though they've probably heard that more than once?

Photo of Greater Swiss Mountain Dog via Shutterstock

Sources: Golf Channel, Yahoo Sports



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