Buckles by David Gilbert for November 17, 2024

A dog can’t have too many toys…..

My dog has that many chew toys and more! And treats!

So do my cats and a few of them used to be the dog’s before he went over the rainbow bridge.

It seams the toy they love the best is the one that is chewed to nastiness / dragged through the mud / repaired over an over.

Reverse version of Calvin’s point of view?

My dog only plays with his toys (and the cat’s toys) when I’m home. When I’m gone he pulls out one of my slippers, a dirty washcloth, some lint from the garbage can by the dryer, one or two of my good boots, and any other soft thing he can find, other than his toys!

We had a really smart dog who learned to put his toys away by watching me do it. I never “taught” him.

And you expected something different!!!!…….

Looks like my house

Buckles had to find some way to keep himself amused while Jill and Paul were at the movies. Would they have preferred him getting into the garbage?

My dog has some star shaped toys that squeak. She rates her meals using them. After every meal, without me noticing her doing it, she will leave 3-5 stars near her food bowl. Then, when I am not looking, she removes them. It took me a while to catch on to her routine. I am actually proud when I get 5 stars. I cook for her (in large batches, so the food goes mostly in the freezer until needed), and she seems to really like that. She developed kidney failure earlier this year and the vet told me I had to switch her to prescription kibble. I disagreed and asked for a recipe. The vet finally convinced me to get the dog food, that it would be her best chance to live longer. My dog hated it. I was against it the whole time, and watching my dog walk away from a meal for the first time was really sad (no stars). Eventually, my dog became very ill and I took her to the doggy ER. She had pancreatitis. I was told by the ER vet that the diet I had her on (ground turkey, vegetables and brown rice) were a perfectly healthy kidney diet and that her kidneys were just slowly failing due to her age (14). When I returned to our regular vet, she told me to start cooking again. $3000 later, I went back to the vet’s office and dropped off $100 worth of kibble and canned prescription kidney diet. I told them to donate it to someone who could use it. From the kidney diagnosis alone, I was told she would die in 6 months. That was early this year. My dog had to miss a few weeks of doing dog therapy at our local hospital due to the pancreatitis, but she soon was back to going once or twice a week (twice is the maximum as it is exhausting for both the dog and the human), and she is still doing great. I happily cook for her. She’s a small beagle, very calm and quiet.

I certainly didn’t have any luck teaching our dog, Bell, to put her toys away.

How else is he suppose to entertain himself. Would you 2 rather he tear up the furniture, ruin your shoes, get into the garbage?

It’s interesting that I once noticed upon return home from a vacation to 4 cats…not one toy was touched the whole time we were gone.