Ain't No Sunshine When He's Done....

Maggie and I had our first agility show in a long while this past weekend. We did okay, but that's a story for tomorrow.
Most agility shows give away inexpensive dog toys- some give a toy for every Q, some give away one toy per weekend, and this trial was no exception. Apparently the Zanies brand gives the clubs a good deal because we see more of that brand of toy than any other. And recently we have seen a lot of toys that look like the sun, the moon, or a star. These have been particularly popular at our house.... especially the sun.



When it first arrives home, any new toy is subjected to some pretty serious testing and the tug test is always one of the most rigorous. Fortunately for this toy there is no way to get a really good bite onto it, so it survived tugging. But wihin a few minutes of testing, Maggie loses interest in the toy and gives it up to Jake. Jake is wihout a doubt, harder on toys than any dog I've ever known. Most squeeky toys have their plastic sqeeker punctured and their fiberfill guts spread all over the living room within minutes.
The one exception to this is the Zanies sunshines. He unstuffs the moons and stars, but the sunshines are reserved for a different torture.... ray amputation. As soon as he wrestles it from Maggie, he runs off to hide and secretely begins removing all rays of sun. In fact, in the dozens of suns he has performed amputation on, this is the first time I've caught him in the act. I always thought that he tore them off because it was so fast, but here he is using his teeth like scissors and snip, snip, gulp... no more ray.

There have been a few other toys that he likes to remove appendages from (bows, tags, ears, tails) but nothing with the enthusiasm that he has for removing the rays of sun.
He usually manages to remove every last ray within 2 to 3 minutes and then the sunshine is discarded, never to be played with again-squeeker working and polyfill guts still intact.

It is one of those things that makes me wish I could talk to him. Is he vitamin D deficient? Is he afraid someone will poke their eye on them? Is it like a zit that just must go! Maybe he doesn't like sunshine...I don't know, but I wish I did.