Sneaky Bulldog Swallows 19 Of His Human's Pacifiers, Because Dogs

The vet found 19 pacifiers in the dog’s stomach

If you’ve got a mischieveous dog (so, a dog), you know how quickly they can get into things when left of their own devices. Even if you’re in the same room as them, dogs somehow figure out how to attempt to digest only the items they shouldn’t — and a bulldog named Mortimer is no exception.

It all started this past April when the Wellesley family noticed that their three-year-old dog would get nauseous before mealtime. So, his owner, Emily Shanahan, brought him to the vet hoping a round of meds would fix what ailed sweet Mortimer.

Unfortunately, according to ABC News, the meds didn’t have the desired effect and he stopped eating altogether in June. That’s when Angell Animal Medical Center, a 24/7 veterinary hospital operated by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA) administered an X-ray and found the culprit — 19 separate baby pacifiers in Mortimer’s stomach.

It seems the pup had been swallowing his two young, human sibling’s pacifiers whole and after a while, a backup of sorts began to form. Now, if you have a dog, you can attest to finding some pretty interesting remnants in their poop (very small, very colorful Polly Pocket accessories to give one example). But apparently the pacifiers were just too big to pass and Mortimer had to undergo an emergency procedure to remove the offending dummies.

While it’s funny to think of all the shenanigans dogs can get into, it can be serious — even life-threatening — depending on what gets left out for them to find. My dogs are human-sized so even when I don’t leave things out for them, they can easily get into anything left on kitchen counters, including a large deep dish pizza. Ask me how I know.

Dr. Erika De Papp removed the pacifiers via an endoscopy, “a non-surgical procedure used to examine—and oftentimes remove — items from an animal’s digestive tract,” PEOPLE reported. “It’s likely that Mortimer started nabbing these pacifiers in April, perhaps one at a time, and that started a cycle of nausea and vomiting, which are symptoms that can be caused by so many other health issues,” his primary veterinarian, Dr. Doug Brum, said. “If not for the urgency with which his family pursued veterinary care, things would have gotten much worse for him.”

The story of Mortimer has a happy ending. The pacifiers were removed and he is recovered and back at home with his humans. Here’s hoping this pup has had enough of paci’s for a lifetime and decides on passable items from here on out.