Andy's Toy

We have gotten a couple of questions about the toy Andy is playing with in his "tummy tag" picture. We have been wanting to make a post about that toy so now is as good of a time as any! Maybe you remember in a previous post, Mom had called a toy a donkey but when she found the packaging, she realized it was a fox. Even then we told you Mom is pretty silly because a donkey does not look anything like a fox. Mom says her excuse was it was brown and had long legs. You tell us ...



Anyway, that lead to Mom always calling the toy Fox-that-is-not-a-donkey. She decided that was too much to say so she thought about F(ox-that-is-not-a-d)onkey and decided to call it Fonkey. (Control yourselves out there. She IS our Mom.)

Well, Andy loved to play with that toy but Sammy decided that Fonkey was his replacement for poor Red Bear who is still around but is only a shell of his former self. Since Sammy doesn't play with lots of toys, Mom usually lets him have one if he picks it out.

To make it up to Andy, Mom went to get another toy. She wanted to buy a Stinky but Petsmart only had the fox. (Here are the different ones in the series. This is just a site Mom found that shows all of the toys. It is not an endorsement for the site.) This is Foxy. He is the plush fox. You can tell because he has black legs.



So now we have Fonkey and Foxy and, guess what, Sammy wants them both. Mom spends most the time taking one away from Sammy and letting Andy have it. Roxie just ignores the whole process.



And, yes, Fonkey's face is a little chewed up. We have been working on him. He is already missing his squeakers.

The New Toy

Hi, dogfriends! Andy here.

The other day Mom bought this toy for our cousin Jake. He is really tough on toys and is an expert at ripping them up and pulling the stuffing out in a couple of minutes. He had one of these chickens before and it took him a couple of weeks to completely destroy it. When Mom saw this one in the store, she decided to buy it for him even though it was a little expensive for a dog toy.

Jake and Maggie and Aunt Bec came over the other night, so Mom gave Jake the toy. He was having a lot of fun playing with it but then he decided to go outside. Jake likes to be outside more than any of us. He will spend hours out there.

Anyway, when Jake left the toy, I decided to go check it out but I had to keep an eye out for Jake.



I decided I like the toy so much, I would protect it. Oh, okay, I decided it made a comfy pillow so I laid my head on it.



Jake did not take the toy home with him ... but he still gets to play with it when he comes over.

(Note from Mom: If Jake wants to take the toy home, he may. I bought it for Jake. If Andy really wants a toy like this, I will shell out another $12 to get him one.)

Toy Update

Mom found the packaging for the brown toy that Andy was playing with and it is a fox. Silly Mom couldn't remember what it was so she said donkey. She is lucky we love her because a donkey does not look anything like a fox.

Our new friend Luckie was asking if we get along when we share toys. The truth is we mostly get along. We boys know to leave Roxie alone if she has a toy picked out. And most of the time we let her take whatever she wants. She is bossy and we are pretty laid back. Believe us when we say we have more toys than we can play with in a day so, since there are so many to chose, we just pick something else.

Sammy can get a little possessive of a toy if Andy gets too close to it and he will curl his lip and give a low growl. If that happens and Mom sees it, she takes the toy and tells Sammy to stop making the ugly face. After a minute or so, Mom gives the toy back to Sammy. If he makes the ugly face again, she takes the toy again and puts her hand over his muzzle. He knows that she is being the leader of the pack and insisting that her pack members get along. She will do it a couple of times but, if Sammy is still too possessive, she takes the toy away for the night.

Mom will even take toys from Roxie. We think she is really brave to do it because you can tell Roxie is mad about it when it happens. But even Roxie knows who is the real leader of the pack. She only gets to be leader when Mom is at work and we are home guarding the house.

But most of the time, we play and share and trade toys and play tug of war and happily chew on whatever toy we have. We have had to share Mom and everything else for almost two years so we are used to it. We also have our cousins, Maggie and Jake, come over all the time and they play with our toys too.

Pink Toy Tuesday

Mom is all better today and went to work. Thanks to all of our friends who wished her a speedy recovery. It must have done the trick!

Mom was also very good. She went to the grocery store and bought more cottage cheese for us. She went by PetsMart and bought our canned dog food. She also bought some treats and some ... TOYS!!!!!



She must not realize that we know Valentine's Day was last week and these pink and purple toys are left over because no one bought them. Not that we mind, these toys are new and squeaky and we love them! There is also a brown donkey or something. We didn't look that close before we started to play.

You will also see a bag of tennis balls. Andy loves tennis balls. Mom is always going outside to bring the tennis balls back into the house. She decided some of them were starting to look a little bad so she got Andy a whole bag of new ones!

Roxie checked out the purple hedgehog but decided that wasn't the toy she wanted.


Sammy grabbed the purple hedgehog and jumped on the sofa.


Sammy likes his toy but what is Andy doing ... ?


Andy has the brown toy.


Aah! The total joy of a new toy!


Roxie has the pink hedgehog. She thinks it fits her sweet girlish personality better.


Uh ... Roxie, that doesn't look sweet ...


Now you see why we let her pick her toy first?