A Wake For Tourist Dog

Considering how rough Shaak Ti is on her toys, we've come to only purchase puppy toys from two places - the discount bin at Petco, and the dollar bin at Target. It was during a recent perusal through the Petco discount bin that we found Tourist Dog, marked by his tacky Hawaiian shirt/floppy hat and camera slung around his neck. Possibly due to homesickness for all the tourists she used to see in San Diego, Shaak Ti took an immediate shining to Tourist Dog, sadly the results were as disturbing as they were predictable.

I must warn you that the following pictures are grahpic, and not intended for young children or those lacking intestinal fortitude.

Fare thee well Tourist Dog, we hardly knew ye.

Decapitated, with innards splling out across the floor, we took a moment to gather our thoughts and had a brief impromptu wake for Tourist Dog. We rounded up his fuzzy innard stuffing as Shaak Ti continued to sadistically prance and play with Tourist Dogs' severed head. The good part about toys like this is even though they may be semi-destroyed, Shaak Ti can still extract an amazing amount of fun out of just the small pieces that are left. She's been dragging around Tourist Dogs' head for the last few days now and the stuffing-less carcass will likely continue to be a source of enjoyment for weeks to come.

In other pooch related news, the front porch perch is up and running. Both dogs, but especially Shaak Ti, spend countelss hours here, surveying the neighborhood and yelling/barking at any squirrels within view.

Shaak Ti models her perch. Note all the squirrel infested trees in the background. We're glad to have such a dedicated and efficient anti-squirrel sentinel guarding us from this ever present arboreal menace.

The Untimely Death of Harold the Dinosaur

Not since the death of Tourist Dog (see A Wake For Tourist Dog) have I witnessed such a callous disregard for life and wanton destruction of a stuffed creature.

Harold the Dinosaur has been with us for two or three years, is almost 2 feet tall and an awesome toy.  I purchased Harold with the full knowledge that he was too big for Shaak Ti, but hoping that it would help her raise her game, and attain new heights of dog toy chompdom.  Shaak Ti plays with him regularly and even though she had a couple years to work, hadn't established much more than a bulkhead crotch hole in Harold's tough dinosaur hide.  From this hole she was able to extract some stuffing (which we would promptly restuff) but leave Harold relatively intact.  This caused little concern (other than Shaak Ti's proclivity to attack the crotch area) for Harold's well being.  Enter puppy.

This was the scene of carnage in the kitchen the other day.  Stuffed fluffy dinosaur innards were everywhere.

Local wind currents in the kitchen from the puppy tornado had gathered the fluff into large piles. 

Poor Harold's deflated carcass sat sadly nearby.  I quickly put him up on the operating table (the kitchen counter) and began emergency re-stuffing measures.  After re-stuffing him his vitals stabilized and after a few minutes we thought he might be OK. 

But post-op Harold was quickly and mercilessly eviscerated again.

And again.

The Assassination of Angel Bear by the Coward Shadowfax the Puppy

Our recent Thanksgiving trip to Cavalier, North Dakota to spend the holiday with Alycia's parents was a relaxing and food filled weekend.  As always we brought along the three pooches to share in the holiday festivities. Tito and Shaak Ti are pretty well behaved and are allowed to mingle in the kitchen and living room, but Shadowfax gets a bit too excited in the free-for-all doggie snacking environment that happens during meal preparation and mealtimes.  So Shadowfax stays behind a baby gate in the hallway where she can see all the action and get pets/treats without the danger of an altercation over a scrap of turkey.

Shadowfax is very well behaved and usually lays in her dog bed behind the baby gate, watching the action. During lunch on Friday I was trapped at the far corner of the table and couldn't see Shadowfax, but I suddenly realized that she had been quiet for several minutes.  Very quiet.  This quiet stretch was immediately followed by some odd thrashing and bonking noises.  Alycia was closest to the hallway and I told her that shenanigans were afoot.  She jumped up and found Shadowfax the puppy in the process of mauling her Mom's beloved Angel Bear, the Beanie Baby.  Not since the demise of Tourist Dog (see A Wake For Tourist Dog) has there been such a wanton, deliberate act of stuffed animal carnage. 

Shadowfax has only mangled two things at Alycia's parents house, a Bible (King James edition) and Angel Bear.  I try to play this off as the puppy having interest in religious matters, but Alycia parents instead see it as a sign of Shadowfax being rasied in a non-religious and immoral manner. 

Alycia brought Angel Bear home and offered to repair him.  I think this might be tough since he no longer has a face, and any repair will leave him with a large, jagged facial scar and may necessitate a name change to Prison Angel Bear, which doesn't quite have the same warm and fuzzy connotation.

We were also only able to recover one of Angel Bears' eyes.  There is probably another eye rattling around somewhere in Shadowfaxs' digestive tract, which should have taken care of itself by now.  Though it will be unsettling when I have to scoop up a poop in the backyard that is starting back at me with a single beady eye, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. 

 

Shadowfax obviously enjoyed the soft, delicious texture of Angel Bear and seemed quite intent on finishing the job.  She was convinced that Alycia was being extraordinarily cruel by not letting her finish the disemboweling and disassembling process.  Even though he has no eyes and may have a rough time navigating the journey, we're hoping that if repairs don't work, that Angel Bear can spread his wings fly up to stuffed animal heaven.