COLFAX, Wis. (WEAU) A local mom is breathing a sigh of relief after her lost wedding ring turns up in an unexpected spot.

After a day or search the house, the family turned to their doggy for the diamonds.

“The girls were looking at Mom’s wedding ring, passing it back and forth and normally I would have taken it back from them but we were watching a movie and I lost track of it,” said Audra Higbie.

The mother of three from Colfax said her relaxing evening at home Thursday night turned into a night of frantic searching.

“I thought ‘oh my gosh, where is my ring?’ I was just tearing the bedding off the bed, turning the mattresses over and searching all around the bed, all around the room,” Higbie said.

Married to her husband Pat for eight years, Higbie said she feared her wedding ring was lost forever.

But before giving up, the Higbies looked to their four-month-old American Bulldog named Spike.

“I just thought ‘the dog was around the bed and what if Ella holding the ring, had fed it to the dog.’ Because she gives him food off their plates all the time,” Higbie said.

Higbie hypothesized her 2-year-old daughter Ella had fed the wedding ring to their pup.

The Higbies used a friend’s metal detector to test their theory and heard several beeps when they placed it over Spike’s stomach.

“The next morning we took him to the vet just to double check. As soon as they put the x-ray up on the big lighted thing you could see the ring in the middle. There was also a hair clip and a big chunk of something that turned out to be half of a tennis ball,” Higbie said.

Higbie said the veterinarian was able to avoid surgery by making Spike throw up the ring and the other items in his stomach.

After getting it cleaned, the ring is back where it belongs.

“It's funny because it turned out OK. We were able to laugh about it once we found my ring. All is well that ends well,” Higbie said.

The family said Spike was a little sleepy after coming back from the veterinarian but is now back to his normal puppy self.