Whippets and Toys

When Ivy is in a really good mood, she has to take a toy out to the bathroom with her. She can hold the toy (no matter how big it is) while peeing, but not while pooping. Her little game is to "forget" the toy, come flying back to the porch and stare at me, wagging her tail. I say, "IVY!! Where's the toy?" She turns around and either:

1) Flies back out to get it and bring it back or

2) Wags her tail harder till I say sternly, "You go get that toy!" THEN she flies out to get and and comes to a sliding stop against the front door.

One of the things I enjoy so much about whippets is their love of toys. I used to buy toys for the collies all the time and they never really played with them after about six months or so.

We finally had to replace the big cardboard box that'd been in the living room since Christmas. My friend Carol sent us a giant box of stuffed animals (I'm talking 2 1'2 foot square box here) Ivy and the Shakespeare litter opened it, I cut a more attractive opening, and we just let it stay here for awhile. Gracie liked to climb inside and sleep in it so we hated to move it. Then the Pelton puppies came and they decided the box itself was a great chew toy. Two days ago it finally fell apart and I replaced it with a big plastic box. Our living room has definitely lost a little of its...um, character, since the cardboard box is gone.

We go through a lot of stuffies around here. I keep a good supply in the living room and just a few in the dog room. The good ones have to stay in the living room or upstairs though because Candy and Juliet simply HAVE to have toys in their mouths when they go outside, and they generally forget to bring them back in. Which means when SinCin and Dallas go out, we have the Chainsaw Massacre out there. Part of the reason I try to clean the yard every day (and sometimes twice a day!) is to get the fluff out of the yard. SinCin (Lab/Chow) is amazing to watch. She picks up the toy, lies down with it delicately between her paws, and with one wrench of the jaws, rips its head off. Dallas will carry one around for awhile and sometimes even sleeps with one all night without destroying it, but it eventually falls prey to the German Shepherd Jaws.

Goodwill does a booming business with us. Fifty cents a stuffie, no matter the size. And ours like the almost-whippet-sized ones best.

The Timbreblue Toy Wars, where the toys never win.