It was a rocky couple of days for Gordon the golden retriever.

He underwent emergency surgery Wednesday to remove 1.8 pounds of rocks from his stomach. Gordon is now under vet's orders to switch his hankering from stones to bones.

The surgery for his "rock hard" abs at the BluePearl Veterinary Partners hospital went smoothly, with 16 stones up to 2 inches removed from the 7-year-old dog, said his veterinary surgeon, Dr. Jeff Yu.

Gordon passed a 17th stone with a little help, Yu added.

Had it been only one or two stones swallowed, the Edina dog would likely have had no problem, given that "they can pass some pretty incredible things," Yu said. "Unfortunately, this dog just got into so many rocks."

He was taken to an emergency hospital Tuesday night.

Gordon's owners declined an interview and didn't want their names used. They learned the hard way that dogs, cats and other animals can eat the darndest things.

"I removed a rubber duck from a dog once. That was really interesting to see on X-ray," he said. "It literally looked like a rubber duck."

Joy Powell