Tuffy for my Softy!

So Dolce has had this toy, called a Tuffy, since she came to us.  She never payed it much attention at first but I suspect that was because her mouth wasn't strong enough or big enough for it yet.  Well recently she has discovered a love for this toy, which is great.  This company (http://www.tuffietoys.com/page/2) calls their toys the "Tuffest soft toys on the planet" and they seem to be just that.  They have pockets that their squeakers are sewn into and then they have 4 layers of fabrics and plastics (mostly luggage quality fabrics) all sealed together with 7 rows of stitching into a protective webbing on the outside. This is great for strong chewers and "rippers", which Dolce is, evidence being her series of headless and legless stuffed animals strewn about.  Sometimes I feel like I live in that kid Sid's house, from Toy Story, just mutilated toys everywhere, only less creepy, and we're not pyromaniacs!  At any rate, she loves this thing now.  Well one day when I was home alone with her and cooking dinner I heard growling coming from the living room, interrupted by brief periods of a grunts.  After ignoring it for a few minutes I finally went in to see what was going on.  And I walked in to find Dolce playing with her toy, on her face, like this...

She had stuck her face into the hole as far as it could go, so much so that her eyes were squished shut.  And she was just walking around the room blindly chewing on it and then after a moment or two suddenly shaking and shaking it by swinging her head back and forth while she grunted.  It was truly hilarious.  After a while I took it off her face and repositioned it so she could still chew it but actually see what she was doing and every single time she would drop it on the ground and immediately shoved her face back into the hole just as far as it would go. After about the third time I did this she dropped it on the ground, looked at me and made the biggest and most adorable sigh. She looked so annoyed I wouldn't just let her play with it her way.  And finally she came over jumped in my lap and licked my chin for as long as I would let her and then very quietly picked up her toy and brought it upstairs to play alone.  Ann Landers once said, "Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful."  But what the hell does Ann Landers know, I'm pretty sure I annoyed Dolce to no end the day, and she was more then willing to snuggle up and love me anyway because in her eyes, I'm wonderful!

"Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." - John F Kennedy

So a while back, in the end of May, we took Dolce to the pet store to get a few things and while we were there we inevitably stop in the toy section, because God forbid Dolce walk by the toys without trying to snatch one off the shelf!  So anyways we are walking through and we get the bright idea to let Dolce pick out her own toy!  Well she did just that, she picked this long, skinny, pink, stuffed dog, which would be the first of many stuffed things she would have, as they are totally her favorite toys.  And oh did she love that thing!  She carried it all over the house incessantly rubbing the spit soaked thing on us while she chewed and squeaked away.  And then she proceeded to rip its legs off, it's belly open and throw up on it.  I'm pretty sure that was what officially sealed it being hers even if by default because no one wanted to touch it after that. Well after about a month and a half of this I finally had to make the executive decision to take it away from her.  There are only so many times you can do "stuffed animal surgeries" and cram squeakers and stuffing back into their soft, furry sausage casing bodies before its a lost cause. For those who were wondering my surgery limit is 3, that poor stuffed dog looked like the stuffed animal equivalent of Heidi Montag by the time I was done with it! Anyway, it was finally time to toss this dog and since she loved this thing so much I knew we'd have to replace it.  So one Friday after work Dolce and I climbed into the care and headed to the pet store with a mission in mind (and yes, this is what I do on Friday nights now)! After she ran around like a psycho for 15 minutes because she was so excited to be at the store and see other dogs, we hit up the toy section.  And sure enough after sniffing a few rubber bones and squeaky balls she ended up snagging a new stuffed dog, only this time, bigger and red.  Like the ebb and flow of the ocean as quickly as the toy went out a new one came back in again.  As if nothing had changed at all she proceeded to chew him until he was soaking wet.  Affectionately rub it all over our legs in an attempt to show it to us, but not let us have it never let us have it if she can help it.  Then she ripped the legs off this new dog and ripped his belly open, only this time no throwing up.  And so we had a new best friend, a big red dog, appropriately named, Clifford.

"Absence and death are the same - only that in death there is no suffering." - Theodore Roosevelt

So I know that I have been absent for quite a while, it has been a crazy and hectic summer.  I know this is no excuse so I promise to continue with the posts and update you guys from here on out!  As you can see from this photo, Miss Dolce has gotten big and you guys have missed a whole bunch, so sit back and relax and I'll catch you up to speed!