Shay’s Killing Fields

Santa brought Shay 19 new squeaker toys for Christmas. “Thank goodness,” Shay thought, “I’m all out of toys with squeakers still in them.” Not that having a squeaker is a requirement for a dog toy, but Shay has a special talent for cutting through just enough of a seam to extract the small plastic bubble.

Every night, before Russ is close to finishing his dinner Shay starts bugging him to come into the sun room and play with her and all her toys. Poor Russ, being a too kind dog Daddy, always leaves his plate half finished to accommodate his great love. He lies on the floor and throws her toys from her basket. She jumps in the air and either catches them or bats them back at him with her nose.

Well, true to her one squeakier a day rule, Shay has officially finished her removal of all her Christmas toys. Now, as her toys lay strewn across the sun room floor she looks longingly to Russ asking for another 19 toys. Sadly she will have to wait until a dog toy holiday. Russ thinks that Martin Luther King’s birthday is absolutely a qualifying holiday. Spoiled? Damn right.