We had a security crisis yesterday.
Mister Moose apparently thought it was a good idea to mark Lally’s favorite squeaky ball. (Lucky for Moose, the ball was outside at the time! Otherwise, he’d be wearing doggie diapers today.) Lally was beside herself. She kept running to the ball, but wouldn’t pick it up. I wouldn’t pick it up either, to be honest.
Every time she was out in the yard, Lally would be circling the ball, sniffing the ball, looking at the ball, etc. While we were inside, if I so much as moved, she was up and ready to go out and check on her ball. As the evening went on, she investigated the toy basket a few times, but found nothing to her liking. I managed to get her to play a little bit with a tennis ball, but she lost interest quickly. Nothing would do but the squeaky ball.
Finally this morning she mustered the courage to actually pick up the piddle ball and bring it inside. I washed it off and all was right with the world again.
It’s amazing how distraught she is without her squeaky ball. She’s like a little kid without her security blanket! You have to see it to believe it. If the ball rolls under the bed where she can’t reach it, she will come and get someone to retrieve it. Whenever she goes outside, the ball comes with her. Back in our Vermont days, there was a horrible weekend when the ball had rolled beneath my car and I didn’t realize it. Poor Lally searched the apartment and the yard endlessly until I happened to find it after moving the car.
And to think, I bought her first squeaky ball because I thought it was funny. Now I have to keep a supply on hand just in case Moose chews one to pieces (which he does quite frequently). I ordered a half dozen at Christmas… we’ve only got four left. Moose has been busy!
Does your pup have a special toy that she carries around with her all the time? My fur-sister Becca always used to bring us her stuffed blue bone when she was happy, but she wasn’t quite as attached to the blue bone as Lally is to the squeaky ball.