A couple from the US city of Pittsburgh said they “couldn’t be mad” at their dog who ate $4,000 (€3,644) in cash.

The Golden Doodle named Cecil went viral across the world this week when his money-eating antics were made public.

On Moncrieff today, owner Carrie Law said it was completely out of character for her beloved pet.

“We had just pulled the money out as we were doing a house project and had to pay in cash,” she said.

“We put the money on the counter and our dog, who has never gotten anything from there in his life, decided that was the day he was going to do it.

“He really went for it and my husband started yelling ‘Cecil’s eating the money’ and we just walked into this big mess of shredded bills.

“A lot of it had been ingested at that point.”

Cecil the money-eating Golden Doodle from Pittsburgh pictured with his owner Carrie Law.

The couple struggled to wrap their head around it at first.

“He was just sitting on the couch totally normal and we were thinking ‘He has $2,000 inside him right now,’” said Ms Law.

“We just wanted to make sure he was ok but he was totally fine and the vet told us as long as he’s going to the bathroom and eating, acting normal, then not to worry about it.

“He was playing and being normal so obviously didn’t notice.

"We weren’t really mad at him either as you can’t be mad at a pet in this situation – we were just totally shocked.”

Salvaging money

Ms Law said their intentions soon turned to salvaging the money.

“We figured at that point we should wait and see what he deposits in the yard and start picking that up and clean it off as well, which worked,” she said.

“My husband did a lot of the dirty work and I did the fine-tuning rinsing process once the solids had been knocked off.

“You might have part of it together but then you’d realise you didn’t have part of a serial number and had to wait for him to go to the bathroom to see if it was in that round.”

Lessons learned

Some $3,550 was recovered from Cecil in the end.

“I think we’ll keep a couple of them to frame them because it was so absurd and would be a fun way to remember all this,” said Ms Law.

“We’ve already been able to exchange most of the bills, a little over $3,500, so the last few are the ones the bank won’t take which is what we’re left with right now.

“It’s still a lot of money to lose but in the grand scheme of things of what it could have been it’s fine, we’ve learned our lesson.”

Ms Law added that she still loves Cecil, who is “very goofy and very sweet,” despite his recent escapades.

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Main image: A playing dog. Credit: Zoonar GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo