Fruit Fermentation

I have a question that may show my inexperience.

I have a stout sitting on cherries that were dried. I knew that the cherries would rehydrate and suck up some of the beer. I'm just wondering how much of the fruit will be fermented out? Will the yeast eat a significant portion of the fruit mass? If not is there a straining method that anyone has used to get the beer out of the swollen cherries?

I added some dried cherries to a beer a couple of months ago and they seem to mostly disintegrate rather than swell up. Though it did take some time for that to happen.

In terms of straining, one thing I've done after dry hopping with whole leaf hops and forgetting to use a bag to contain them is (assuming you're bottling):
1) Rack as usual to bottling bucket until all you have left is a mess of hops (or dried cherries) in your fermenter
2) Put a large colander (like a pasta strainer) over your bottling bucket and dump the hops on to it -- careful not to get too much of the yeast sediment
3) Put on some rubber gloves, stick your hands in sanitizer, and push down on the hops / cherries in the colander to extract liquid

Of course this probably adds to oxidation, so maybe not the brightest of ideas for a stout that'll sit in bottles for months. Also, I feel like squeezing dried cherries may give you some tannins or other odd textures, so who knows?

Hello, when I have used dried fruit, if possible I may a cut for easier access for the yeast to get to the meat of the fruit...in the end the yeast will eat it all but I have found cutting the fruit speeds the process.
As for straining my fruit beers, I always use a 5 gallon bucket strainer like this: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002YSWFY/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

put a hop bag over the end of your siphon and start siphoning from the top down.