My oldest got a puppy for her birthday 3 years ago. May (the pup) loves toys, preferably stuffed animals. If you come through our front door you can expect to be greeted by a very happy puppy with a stuffed animal in her mouth that she would like to share with you. While cleaning there rooms I had the girls go through all there toys and they had 2 large trash bags of stuffed animals to donate. While I was loading the boxes of clothes in the car I noticed May trying her hardest to get a bear bigger than her out of the bag. She pulled and pushed and managed to get it out oh the bag, She was so excited she brought it to me. It was so much bigger than her and she looked so darn cute, I let her keep it. We actually kept that whole bag for her. For a while we would alternate the animals. Her favorite was the Aflack duck. It talked. My oldest got a giant penguin from the amusement park and brought it home for her. It was hilarious watching her carry this thing around. One day when I got home from work I walked in on the great penguin massacre. Down stairs there was white stuffing all over my red rug and the pup was in the penguin. How the kids didn't notice I will never know. Her next toy was a cow that mooed. May thought this was so cool. She could make it moo. Soon she tore the poor cows head off and we had to remove the mooer. She still carries the headless cow around and gifts it to people when the enter. As for the mooer, my hubby loves to hide it in various other stuffed animals. So at any given time we may have a mooing deer, bear or more recently a mooing bunny. She is not a rip them to shreds pup. She likes to put them in her food dish to feed them and occasionally she thinks they need water. I appreciate her mothering skills but soggy stuffed animals, yuck. If we aren't watching she also like to take them out to potty.
When my daughter got her Kia we thought she needed a Zuzu pet. Cuz of the Kia Hamster commercials. The Zuzu fascinated May, they walk and make animal noises. she would watch it and pet it and protect it from danger, i.e. stairs the abyss of under the couch. We kept it up on the bookshelf in the living room. May new she was not aloud to climb on the self. She would stand like a prairie dog and Stretch to try and reach it. We did let her play with it under supervision. If she started to get rough we would tell her gentle. Zuzu soon became her baby. She groomed it, cuddled it, took it to have food, but because it makes noise we put it up at night. Each morning she would run out and stand up asking for it. Once she figured out why we put it up she started butting it to bed on her pillow in the living room. So she could go get it herself in the morning. One day Zuzu disappeared. May cried and looked everywhere for a couple days. Hubby sent the girls and I to go find another Zuzu. We found an identical one. At first May wasn't sure a bout this new baby, then she started caring for it. Zuzu 1 was found, under the treadmill. go figure, he must of crawled under when we were working out. May was thrilled, 2 babies. She immediately built a nest of throw pillows and her blanket.
It's been almost a year and she still thinks they are her babies. May is a thoughtful pup. If our older dog isn't feeling well she gives her the bear to lay on. If you look sad she will bring you a stuffed animal and lay her head on your lap. If your being tackled she will protect you by pulling on the offenders clothing. May is also very talented, she opens doors, sometimes w/ her paws, sometimes her mouth and sometimes just by brute force and her hard head. She can escape from a dog run in less than 6 minutes. I set up a sting for this one. She'd been getting out of her run and breaking into the house. One morning I left the door into the house open. She thought I had left but I came back in and stood on the stairs just inside and watched her. She pulled on the fencing with her teeth and paws and would take breaks to bark at it till she was able pull just enough to squeeze threw the tiny opening she made. She stopped dead in her tracks when she turned that corner to go up stairs and saw I was standing there. She backed down the stairs and into the garage.
May has adopted me since her mama went off to college. May sleeps w/ the youngest but as soon as she wakes up she's my shadow. Yes, a Zuzu is generally in tow. We go outside so she can take care of her business then we come n and work-out. Yes, she works out too, it's the funniest thing. She loves to run on the treadmill w/ me, she does jumping jacks and push-ups. We need to work on sit ups, she seems to think the goal of those is to catch and pull my ponytail. This morning after our morning work out I decided I had enough time to take a bath. With 5 people in the house (4 girls) baths are a luxury. May is very talented, she opens doors, sometimes w/ her paws, sometimes her mouth and sometimes just by brute force and her hard head. I had just gotten in the tub and got comfy when all of a sudden there was May's head and she dropped something in the tub. A foam ladybug. Guess she thought I needed a toy to play with. I was glad it wasn't a Zuzu or the giant bear.
