Fingers crossed that everything works out smoothly, Steph.

Kato is the only dog I've met who doesn't destroy his toys. He has a teddy bear that's over 3 years old whose squeaker still works.

Call the Guinness Book of World Records. Seriously. I've never met a big dog that didn't killkillkill the squeaker.

But, you know, Bartleby uses Eeyore's squeaker strategically. This is no doubt why it has survived.

He nabs it out of the toy pile, sneaks up behind my office chair and gives it a hardy squeak. This almost always inspires me to action. Other squeakers are not as effective, so he just annihilates them. Huh. Never made that connection before. Heh.

Mr Peabody sees a squeaker as a personal offense that must be killed immediately. He will occasionally sort through his basket of misfit toys and pull out one to meditatively work on removing the rest of the stuffing.

to meditatively work on removing the rest of the stuffing.

It really does seem meditative...though I don't think Bartleby has ever left a job undone like that. He's pretty much an all-out kind of guy, stuffing-wise.

Layla has no interest in toys at all. We tried everything but nothing interests her except live things--petting with people and wrestling with other dogs. Truman, on the other hand. LOVES his toys. When anyone he likes comes over, the first thing he does is grab a toy to show them. No matter where you put them, he will find them and carry them back to his bed. When we go visit my SiL, he spends his time finding all THEIR dogs' toys and putting them on THEIR bed. He is very tidy, although he does disembowel them on a regular basis. We buy these [link] in bulk when they are on sale.

I'm going to a police debriefing on a big officer-involved shooting we had last week (because i took the call that sent officers to check on a suicidal subject who happened to have some hunting rifles and really good aim). *gulp* it was a pretty routine call from my end and i'm not terribly concerned about being heavily criticized, and i'm very interested in seeing how a formal debriefing actually works...but i'm also pretty anxious about being in a room surrounded by officers while they have the opportunity to pick apart every choice i made as a calltaker. I don't think they will, or that that would be part of this process (critiquing generally happens within a few days in a closed office with a union rep and none did, so i'm certainly not "in trouble" at all)

don't need ~ma, just to get some friggin sleep tonight.

Good luck erin!

Pico doesn't seem to rip anything but the dryer sheets. She will shake the shit out of things, and playing seems to involve a lot of pouncing, but things pretty much stay in one piece. Of course that may be because Oz is shredding every toy in his path before she would ever get a shot at them.

Good luck erin. Perhaps you will actually be praised!

Truman sounds like a dog after my own heart. Bartleby will pull out the toys but has no concept of replacing them.

And, in a way I have never been able to explain, he wants to grab a toy to take outside when in a pee break. No clue. He does NOT grab a toy if I say 'outside', which he knows involves the collar. 'Pee' which is just the yard means he MUST have a toy. He immediately drops it...and leaves it for me to pick up. If I didn't follow behind him, every single toy would be out there and he'd be grabbing socks or something.

I guess he wants to show off his vast wealth and holdings to the peasant passersby.

Wow erin, your job... I don't think I could handle the stress of it. I'm in awe of you.

When we go visit my SiL, he spends his time finding all THEIR dogs' toys and putting them on THEIR bed. He is very tidy,

Truman is adorable.

People who claim animals don't have emotions and personality just baffle me. Have they ever *met* an animal? If they're just running on instinct and "programming", so are we.

I love seeing my cats go to the toy box and pick out a toy. Leo thinks all the toys are *his*. Percy didn't really know how to play when I got him; he would bat a little at strings dangled over his head, but it took almost a year for him to get the concept that things that weren't food and weren't going to hurt him had any use. Of course, now he plays with stuff that he shouldn't touch, but I'd rather that than him huddled in a corner warily watching Leo play, or staring at toys as if he had no idea what they were for.