The Joy of Squeakers

In all the years Kino has been with me, the one thing that has remained constant is the complete and utter joy he gets from the sound of a toy making a squeak. To be honest, it brings me joy too - to see him so happy makes my heart feel happy too.  I can't help but laugh when I see him marching around the family room with a squeak toy in his mouth, as each step produces another sound from the chomp of his jaw.

Of course, after a while, most of the toys stop making noise . . . and Kino's level of joy diminishes a bit. One night I found him searching through his toy basket, biting each toy until he found one that would make the desired sound and leaving a big pile of "quiet" toys outside of the basket . . . and I got an idea . . . maybe it was time for his toys to have "squeaker replacement surgery!"

I got on line and researched the little noise makers, reading reviews and trying to determine which ones might be the most durable.  When the package arrived, I determined who would get the first transplant surgeries and got to work.

I am not much of a seamstress but I gave it my best effort. Since the weather was nice, I parked myself in a lawn chair outside with all the necessary "instruments" and a few hours later, all the "surgeries" were complete.

Kino was over the moon!  He spent the next several hours biting each one, back and forth, back and forth until all the toys were sopping wet from slobber.  Later that night, I got him to chase the ball for a bit but shortly after we started, he stopped mid-run . . . stood there for a minute . . . then ran back over to the pile of stuffed toys.  It was like his brain said to him "But wait, we have new squeakers in the stuffed toys!"

Seeing how happy the rejuvenated toys made Kino, the next week, I decided to get even more adventurous and re-stuff the toys that he had inherited from Lucky.  Since she unstuffed most of her stuffed toys, there were a lot of floppy toy carcasses in the bottom of the toy basket that I just hadn't had the heart to part with in the nearly ten years she has been gone.  My trip to the craft store for just the right stuffing was followed by several more hours of "surgery" - and since I was putting in such a big effort, I decided to put more than one squeaker into each of the re-stuffed toys so that if one of the squeakers gave out, at least the toy would still make noise.

Kino almost seemed overwhelmed when I presented all the toys to him after they came out of "post-op." It was as if he was thinking "How could one dog be so lucky?" and for a while, he just laid there and stared at all the "refreshed" toys. I wondered if maybe he was hesitant because they were Lucky's toys but eventually, I heard the sound I had been waiting for - a cacophony of squeaking coming from the family room.

For the time being, Kino has a whole lot of squeaking toys to bring him joy!  And as always, his joy brings me joy!  I would say our project was successful!!

Stuffed Toys

When Kino first came into my life, I was shocked to discover that his approach to stuffed toys went beyond any other dog I ever had.  Sure, I was use to the toys being ripped apart and I was used to piles of "guts" (stuffing) everywhere as well as annihilated squeakers but unlike any other dog I know, Kino had an additional step to his process .  . he was determined to swallow everything he pulled out of a stuffed toy.

This was a concern to me, not just because it was pretty gross when it come out the next day, but I worried about what would happen if all that "stuff" got stuck in his stomach and/or intestines.  I talked to him about it and explained that he needed to leave the "guts" on the ground so that I could throw them away.  I supervised him with the stuffed toy . . . applauded him each time he spit out the stuffing but the second I came near him to pick the stuffing up, he gobbled it up and swallowed quickly.

So I informed him that he wouldn't be allowed to play with stuffed toys anymore.  (It's the approach I have had the most success with Kino . . . using consequences and rewards). Every so often, I would give him another chance . . . reminding him that he couldn't swallow what he pulled out . . . and each time, he seemed even more determined to swallow the contents as quickly as possible.  The box of stuffed toys would get put away for another stretch of time.  This went on for years and I wondered if he would ever learn how to play with a stuffed toy without swallowing the contents.

The message finally got through to him on his 5th birthday.  One of my friends bought him a big green stuffed turtle.  With trepidation I gave it to him  . . . not only did he show me that he no longer wanted to swallow the contents of a toy, he didn't even want to rip the toy!  He was happy to bite on it, slobber on it and "talk" to it.  I took it as a sign it was safe to pull out the box of stuffed toys that had been hidden away and he was equally good with all the "old" toys. He had "matured" so much he didn't try to rip any of them open.  He seemed content to just make them squeak and use them as pillows and occasionally use them to entice me away from the computer. A whole new world of fun opened up for Kino!

Over time, they do get rips and tears in them though. Since I don't want him to be tempted into his old ways by stuffing coming out of the holes, I stitch them back up.  Somehow I began using simple hospital terms to explain things to Kino. When I noticed a stuffed toy with a rip in it, I'd say, "uh oh, he's going to need surgery" and I would place the toy on the top of the refrigerator.  I began referring to the top of the refrigerator as "pre-op" and once I had 4-5 toys that were ready for "surgery" I'd pull out the sewing kit and fix them all up.  It's to the point now where if I say, "uh oh, he's going to need surgery," Kino immediately looks at the top of the refrigerator.  :-)

The first time I sat down with the pile of toys in need of repair, Kino was a little pushy. The moment I finished the first one, he came over and tried to pull it off the table. Not wanting him to be so impatient, I told him that the toys had to stay in "post-op" until they recovered from their surgery.  It makes me giggle every time I say it, but Kino respects that and now leaves the toys alone, until I tell him that they've recovered from their surgery.

It took a lot of time and a lot of patience to help him learn that it's not good for him to swallow the contents of a stuffed toy but it was well worth the effort. I get to feel the peace and calm inside knowing we aren't going to be rushing into the emergency vet for a different kind of surgery for Kino. To see the tremendous joy he gets out of playing in a new way with his toys is an added bonus.