Oldest Homework Excuse in the Book Turns Out to Be True – and Eighth-Grader Has Her Dog's X-Rays to Prove It

Payton Moody, 13, had just spent a painstaking stretch of time on what was not your garden-variety kind of science project.

More along the lines of an invention from the confections aisle — a model of Maui's Mt. Haleakala volcano, made of chocolate and candy held together with pins.

“She had chocolate as the mountain and used Twizzlers for lava coming out, with blue M&Ms for water,” Payton’s mother, Kara Moody, told GoodMorningAmerica.com. “She used the pins because I didn’t want the hot glue gun around her younger brother.”

Image source: ABC News

But no one told the family dog, Reggie — a 2-year-old yellow Labrador Retriever with a hankering for the occasional midnight snack.

"I woke up one morning and I came down to my desk and it was just all over the floor," Payton told ABCNews of her edible edifice. "I was very scared."

She was right to be. Reggie was the culprit and consumed "every last bite" — including about 50 pins, now sitting inside the pooch's stomach, x-rays confirmed.

Fortunately a vet's endoscope down the doggie's gullet removed all but five pins while emergency surgery took care of the rest.

Image source: ABC News

Reggie is fine now, as is Payton, who was able to say to her teacher, "My dog ate my homework" with a straight face and without her fingers crossed behind her back.

She even got a shot at the project again.

Image source: ABC News

Of course, the Englewood, Colo. eighth-grader came home with an A.

Here's a report from KDVR-TV in Denver:

(H/T: Gawker)

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