RAPAPORT... When Charlie Jackson and his wife Carol noticed her $16,000
(GBP 12,000) engagement ring was missing, and saw the accompanying wedding ring
strewn on the floor, it was soon obvious what had happened.
The British couple took their nine-month-old dog, Bear, to a
veterinary surgeon, whose x-ray image (above) confirmed the worst: Nestled in the black
labrador’s belly was the outline of Carol’s precious jewel. The pooch had grabbed
the GIA-graded, brilliant-cut, 1.3-carat, G-color, VVS1-clarity Forevermark
diamond from Carol’s bedside table and swallowed it. The vet was shocked.
“He’d never seen this,” Charlie told Rapaport News.
“They’ve eaten carpet, socks, but never a diamond.” 
The dog, it seems, had expensive taste. Charlie, who works
as a recruiter for luxury companies, bought the ring for about $9,000 (GBP
7,000) nine years ago from a contact at Forevermark, which De Beers had only
recently launched as a retail brand. Getting it wholesale helped: Charlie
claimed the diamond was really worth $16,000.
Bear (pictured, right, with Charlie) gave the couple quite a chase but turned out fine, with
the diamond coming out naturally in her excrement. Diamonds, having no sharp
ends, are relatively harmless for a dog’s insides — unlike more dangerous items
such as kebab sticks, Charlie explained. He added, however, that the ring,
though intact, was still being cleaned.
One thing the incident accomplished, at least, was to
confirm that the center stone was indeed a diamond of either the natural or the
laboratory-grown variety, since the gem itself did not appear in the x-ray. Carbon
generally appears transparent on an x-ray, much like living tissue. A cubic zirconia
stone would likely have been visible.
Diamantaires might call this a case of muzzle and bracha.
Images: Charlie Jackson. Hat tip to Dara Mac Mahon for the headline
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