Safety Pin Dog

I started reading a new book the other day. The title is Marley and Me. I'm just into the third chapter of the book, but it is about a man and his lab named Marley. The book is based around all the mishaps that go with having a lab. It is funny yet, easy reading. So far I am enjoying it. Now I bring in Riley, he is our lab. Riley is about 5 months old now and probably close to 45 lbs. He's big and getting bigger every day. Riley many days drives me crazy. He is OBNOXIOUS, but so darn cute. He is very clumsy as he has not quite grown into his feet or his skin so he really looks dorky. He has an awesome personality. I promise, I will be so mad, yelling at him, pulling yet something else out of his mouth and it's like he looks at me with this half crooked head and smiles. So Friday morning, I'm diligently working on the Halloween costumes. I had stuff spread out all over the coffee table in the living room. I notice Riley is "coughing", he keeps pawing at his mouth. I can't figure out what he has stuck in his throat. He starts whining and yelping. I go over and tell him to spit it out in my firm voice (that usually works) but he just looks at me and starts pawing my leg. I finally get his mouth open and in the upper part of the back of his mouth I can see something silver. He is fighting me the whole time. I finally get it back open and realize that he had a large quilters safety pin open and stuck in his gums. I will say I did panic a little. I wasn't sure what to do. I tried to get it but I couldn't hold his mouth and also pull it out at the same time. I called Richard at work. Maybe I could take Riley to the hospital and he could help me pull it out. No can do, Ricahrd was very busy on Friday and couldn't get away to help me. I ended up putting him in the back of my car and as I was driving to the vet, I was calling them explaining what my "trouble" was. They explained this was a new one to them but go ahead and bring him in and they would help. As we walked in, they kind of chuckled and said "is this the safety pin dog". I laughed, "yep it's us". Riley at this point was not laughing or smiling or wanting to cooperate at all, he was scared. We tried to get it out there in the waiting room, but he was fighting us the whole time. "Ma'am we might need to sedate this dog to get this out" was what came next. I just laughed, hello, that's what my husband does for a living, I don't want to sedate my dog for a safety pin. There's no telling what they will charge for that. The tech suggested we take Riley to the exam room. We lifted him on the table, 2 of us held him down, another held his mouth open and finally with one good pull, another got the safety pin with a long pair of tweezers. Now it is funny. That dumb, clumsy, obnoxious dog was thankful and playful again at that moment. He jumped off the exam table like he owned the place and strutted through the lobby. So as we left the vet, I was just laughing at how coincedental it was that I had just started reading this book warning people comically about the wrath that comes with labs and we experienced our own that day. The joy of dog ownership. The great thing about this story is the vet didn't charge us a dime. I thik they were just happy to see us come and go so easily.