Well, look’ee here….I’d say someone was overcompensating for not taking her dog out for a walk every day, wouldn’t you?
Echoes of my mother’s voice, guilt tripping me to eat up because there are starving children in Africa, come to mind. How obscene is it for my dog to have so many toys when there are children in the world who don’t have any?
Well, it depends what you call a toy. When I think back to my childhood, for many years my favourite toy was a blue mop. She had a white mane, and a chipped blue wooden handle, and was my grey mare. I even remember what I called her, “Patience”. I untangled her mane every day (once I’d rescued her from my mother, who worked her mercilessly every morning) and rode gymkhanas on her in the garden. Toys don’t need to be bright bits of plastic to be fun. Toys are whatever you decide is a toy.
So whilst the whippet’s toys are indeed partly there to salve my conscience about “no walkies today, my pet”, they are also there to distract him from the other things that he has decided are toys (tv remote control, the scouring pad, socks, a sheepskin rug…).
What’s that, you want to look closer?
Yes, it is a bit strange, isn’t it? I swear I bought this in the dog toy section, but I don’t know if that’s better, or worse.
I remember being faced with school canteen cabbage while the mantra
ReplyDelete'Some starving child in India would be glad of that...'
was delivered by a dinner lady.
And I remember the bold little boy who said
'Well they can have mine.'
And I remember the speed at which he was removed to the headmistress' office....
I miss the squeaky Thatcher toys....I use to get two on a good weekend for the pleasure of watching the dogs tear the heads off.
Current toy of choice is a very old beef rib unearthed from goodness only knows where and proudly brought to bed.
The pig's head was left up in the coffee plantation....too lazy to drag it down to the house. Him, not me.
My cat will only play with balled up shreds of newspaper. I've bought lots of toys that languish under the furniture. Meanwhile, the house looks like an abandoned bus stations with all those clots of grey paper all over the floors...
ReplyDeleteThe plug is making me feel quite queasy.
ReplyDeleteMy parent's cats used to go mad over catnip mice. My own Ulysse doesn't have any cat-specific toys (poor lad, I know) but will fight a piece of string, play footie with a ping pong ball and try to catch a dangling twig. And then get so worked up he has to dash outside to recover. Cute.
@ Fly: Pig's heads sound unpleasant - quite as bad as the cow's afterbirths my previous dog used to bring home.
ReplyDeleteWhippet's current toy of choice is my beloved's new sheepsking rug...
@ Lee: Sounds harmless enough, and cheap and easy to clean - it's all good ;-). Mine bring in mauled lizards and birds, that then languish behind bookshelves...
@ Sarah: A rough rider, to be sure...
I have catnip planted in the garden, but my cats ignore it. They far prefer wildlife (see comment above). Ulysses sounds lovely.
No need to feel guilty. It's not like you not buying a toy for your dog will make any difference to toyless children all over the world. Besides, I understand your reasoning because I have an eight month old who loves to drool all over the remote as well, so his toys are pretty much designed to keep him away from it too.
ReplyDeleteYou can afford to buy all those dog toys here in Spain? Or did you bring them from the UK? Our poor Jasper doesn't have many toys as friends' dogs tend to lose them for him!
ReplyDelete@ Jan: Nearly all the toys you see come from the "Todo por cien" in town, and didn't cost more than 2 euros.
ReplyDelete@ Mwa: Is this what they mean by educational toys? Educate them to stay away from the remote control?
ReplyDelete