PLANTATION, Fla. (AP) - Jane Scarola's veterinarian thought the X-ray was a joke. He's seen strange items get into the stomachs of dogs before, things like kebab skewers and small utensils. But a 13-inch serrated knife that somehow was swallowed by a 6-month-old puppy?

That was a new one.

``I was just flabbergasted,'' the vet, Jon-Paul Carew of Imperial Point Animal Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Elsie, a Saint Bernard puppy, apparently had the blade between her esophagus and stomach for about four days before it was removed earlier this week in a 2-hour operation.

The puppy has an 8-inch scar, but is fine and back with her family. And the knife is back in Scarola's kitchen, albeit this time wrapped in a towel and placed in a cabinet atop the refrigerator.

``I'm going to frame it and give it to Dr. Carew,'' Scarola said. ``He should hang it. Everybody should know what puppies are capable of putting down their throats.''

Scarola used the knife to carve a turkey, and placed the blade on the counter - far from the edge.

She thinks one of her six other dogs - four Saint Bernards, a German shepherd and a Labrador - somehow got the knife, which eventually made its way to Elsie.

``She wants to eat everything and anything,'' Scarola said.

Information from: South Florida Sun-Sentinel http://www.sun-sentinel.com