Holly the dog bit off more than she could chew after swallowing an ice-cream - stick and all.

And her owner Angela Robinson could have been left with a very sticky problem after the 90-minute operation to remove the offending stick cost £400.

Mrs Robinson, a child minder, was in the garden with her two-year-old daughter Sherilyn and a neighbour's son, Thomas, one, when Holly's idea of fetch the stick went a bit too far.

Thomas dropped the Mr Men ice-cream he was eating.

And before Mrs Robinson could pick it up, Holly, the family pet since she was adopted from a rescue home as a puppy, swallowed the entire ice-cream.

Mrs Robinson, 29, of Hampton Drive, Kings Sutton, near Banbury, said: "She was fine and she looked up at us as if to say 'I shouldn't have done it, should I'. "We took her to the vet in Banbury and an X-ray showed that the ice-cream stick was lodged in an awkward position and wouldn't pass through her system."

Holly, an eight-year-old Labrador cross, was operated on that same afternoon and made a full recovery.

The family were saved from paying all but £30 of the hefty bill after taking out insurance on Holly with the company Pet Plan.

"It could have been one expensive ice-cream," said Mrs Robinson.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.