'Dog Ate my Homework': Ingestion of Candy-Covered Volcano Results in Emergency Surgery for Dog

Most teachers chalk up the old "dog ate my homework" excuse to one of the oldest tricks in the book. Yet it can happen and it did for a young Colorado student.

"I made a volcano project out of candy and I pinned the candy to a foam base," Payton Moody, 13,  said, whose homework was eaten (literally) by her dog. "It was Mt. Haleakala in Maui."

Unfortunately, the student found her homework on the floor the morning after she had completed the assignment. Her dog had apparently liked the project a little too much--scattering it in pieces across the room with parts missing, as well.

As the assignment contained pins to hold various pieces together, Reggie, the student's dog, may now require surgery due to the ingestion. Though some of the pins were removed using an endoscope down the dog's throat, surgery may be needed in order to properly remove any lingering pieces of the project left inside the dog's body.

"We went in surgically, pulled out the one large and four of the small straight pins," veterinarian Dr. Brian VanVechten said regarding the procedure, according to to GoodMorningAmerica.com. "But there were still six or so in  the stomach, so I called to take the remaining pins out through surgery."

Payton's mother, Kara, 46, also notes that though the dog is on the road to a full recovery, he's back to his old tricks, again.

As Payton remade her project with a hot-glue gun instead of pins, according to the New York Daily News, this didn't stop him from taking a bite.