New Toys

SUMMARY: A selection of fun things for a rainy day.

Tika loved her weasel. It made such great weasely sounds when she squeezed it.
But most of the sound toys have cheap plastic boxes that break as soon as a big dog bites enthusiastically. And Tika loves making those things make those noises! Same thing happened to the weasel and the frog and the monkey I finally found.

Then Johann the Dog posted about the Animal Sounds Babble Ball. I heard the weasel sounds in the video! And the monkey, too! And the frog! And it looked sturdy! So I ordered TWO. (After a mistake where I ordered the TALKING babble ball instead of the animal sounds one.)

Johann suggested putting it in a sock, which sounded like a great idea until I realized that I don't have any old socks lying around.

I had a flash of brilliance when the babble balls arrived. I had some large plush toys with replaceable squeakers stuffed away in the closet waiting for some reason to use them (had them for Remington, who'd play with a toy consistently only if there were food in it). Sure enough, the large chipmunk just barely closed around it. It's perfect! I can actually get a grip to play tug of war, I can throw it w/out the hard plastic damaging anything.



Tika is in 7th heaven! It makes noises all the time and she can chew on it or tug it or chase it. Happy happy dog. She was SO excited that she just about took my hand off (ow!) and you should've seen how frustrated she was when I tried to play with Boost with it for a little bit.

I did a web search for "Noy velcro dog treat" or something similar (Dr. Noy is the manufacturer), and lots of stuff came up. The large chipmunk has apparently been discontinued, but I also have a large squirrel, rat, and playtpus, and at one time had a giant spider or crab or something with a lot of legs, all sturdy and with a velcro fastener, and I think all by the same manufacturer. Very well made.

Next toy: I discovered early on that Boost loves her little bone-shaped plush toys. Not very dense plush, just the size to fit in her mouth. She runs and plays in and out of the house, through the tunnels, and back again, all by herself, carrying and squeaking that little toy. No other squeaky will do.

When the squeaky finally died on the blue one (after a lonnng time--she's gentle with it), I looked forever to find a similar replacement. I found ONE in a pet store. Leopard print. I kept looking, because I knew that one would die eventually, and found ONE more just recently--good, because the old leopardskin one just died. So I got the new red-trimmed leopard-skin one out this morning.

She played with it like it was the the Dog God's gift to her personally--just lying there squeaking it, rolling on her back and squeaking it, running in and out and squeakng it, doing the play bow and squeaking it. I tried to get the camera out after about 20 minutes of this, but she dropped the toy into her empty detergent box and then started going for the box. Which is one of her recent favorite toys.


The other new toy is a rubber milker. Used in milking machines, and I guess when they wear out, they're just trash. Someone discovered that they make great dog toys. I'm sure that eventually someone will start selling them, but I got mine from a friend.

They're the perfect dog toy: Good safe material (you know that, because it's used in our milk supply!), a little bit stretchy, a little bit floppy, soft rubber so easy to grip by human and dog for tug, throws easily and bounces a little when you throw it but not too much. I'm a convert!


Nummies.

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