Sundance the dog has expensive tastes.
The Montana golden retriever munched his way through five $100 bills on a road trip with owner Wayne Klinkel and his wife over Christmas.
Now the out-of-pocket pet-owner hopes to be reimbursed the digested dollars by the federal Government.
'I thought "You dumb SOB,"' Klinkel told the Helena Independent Record with a laugh, recalling the moment he realised what Sundance had done. 'I couldn't believe he did that.'
Yum: The Montana golden retriever munched his way through five $100 bills on a road trip with owner Wayne Klinkel and his wife over Christmas
The Klinkels were on their way to Denver, Colorado, to spend the holidays with their daughter Amy Church and her husband Coty.
On the way, the couple stopped for dinner and left the 12-year-old retriever alone in the car - along with $501 in cash.
When they returned to the vehicle, the $1 bill was sitting intact on the driver's seat and half of one of the five $100 bills was laying next to it. The other four $100 bills were nowhere to be seen.
'Sundance is notorious for eating anything and everything, so right away I knew what happened,' Klinkel told the newspaper.
The man followed the pet around armed with rubber gloves for the rest of the vacation. Knowing that paper doesn't digest, he managed to pick portions of the gobbled notes out of the dog's poop.
'I pretty much recovered two fairly complete bills, and had some other pieces,' Klinkel said. 'But it wasn't nearly enough there to do anything with it.'
Bored: The golden retriever, similar to the one pictured, ate the notes while the Klinkel's were at a diner
His daughter's husband later found more pieces of the $100 bills and Church brought them to her parent's home next time she visited.
After letting the money soak in dish soap for a week, Klinkel drained and rinsed the pieces and let them dry.
He then pieced the bills back together like a puzzle, taped them up and put each note in its own plastic bag, according to the Record.
He took the recovered notes to a local bank where tellers laughed heartily at his ordeal then suggested he send the mutilated currency to the Treasury Department's Bureau of Engraving and Printing, with a letter explaining how the money came to be destroyed.
If the department believes the cash is redeemable, they'll send a check directly to the customer. Usually, having 51 per cent of the bill is enough to exchange it for a full note. But the entire process can take up to two years.
Klinkel told the Record that he's a patient man. 'Guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens,' he said.
