Hi! This is Callie writing. Fred’s been up in Silicon Valley for a few days, so he asked me to fill-in. Happy Halloween!

I thought I’d share with you how I feel about some of my toys. First, here I am with a few of my favorites — my stuffed trout, my favorite “stinky,” my black and yellow barbell, and my (now legless) dodo bird.

So here are my Top Ten favorite toys:

1. Black and yellow soft barbell is pretty fun. It feels good to chew on, and it’s heavy enough that I like to flip it back and forth.

2. Little stuffed bear. This little guy can be pretty relaxing to just munch on — very gently. I don’t want to hurt him, so I don’t ever bite hard. It’s almost as good as my “stinky” for calming down in the evening.

3. The new funny little thing with rope loop handles. This is a new toy that Fred and Barbara bought me last week. I don’t know what to call it. It has about three very hard, colored circles of rope that act like handles. So it’s a really good toy for playing “give and take” with Fred. I offer it to him and he grabs hold, but he doesn’t pull hard. He just holds on for a minute, and then he lets me take it. I really like it when we do this.

4. Green jacks. This one is about eight inches square, and it looks like one of those little metal “jacks” that kids play with — it has four little sticks with knobs on the end. I like this one because it’s easy to grab in my mouth. But it’s not a real good chew toy; there isn’t much to hold on to.

5. Orange fire hose toy. Some doggie toys are made out of old fire hose, so they’re supposed to be indestructible. Well, the fire hose is pretty tough, but the handles they put on these things are easy to chew through. So all my fire hose toys are just fire hose these days. These are really good for flipping back and forth. I like to play with my toys this way sometimes. I get them flipping back and forth real fast and then, if I time it right, I can launch the toy clear across the room!

6. Stuffed trout. This isn’t the kind of stuffed trout you’d eat for dinner. It’s the kind of doggie toy that is stuffed to make it soft for a doggie. It’s pretty amazing that I haven’t chewed through this one, because it’s one of my favorites. I spend a lot of time with it, but it’s tough. This is a good “flipper” toy, too. When I get it going real fast, it looks just like a trout jumping in Lake Arrowhead.

7. (Legless) Dodo Bird. My legless dodo bird isn’t supposed to be legless, but it is. The legs were made of rope, and I un-ravelled them a few weeks ago, so Barbara just cut them off. But I still like the dodo bird. It’s good for cuddling, and sometimes I use it like a pillow in my crate.

8. Soccer ball. This is one of my favorites, because it’s something I can do with Fred. When he lets me out in the back yard, I run right to it, and invite him to play soccer. Fred kicks the ball, and I run fast and trap it under my tummy. Then he kicks it loose, and I run and trap it again. Sometimes he throws it real high, and I jump way up in the air and bump it with my nose. It’s really good exercise!

9. Floppy disc (water frisbee). Boy, we’re really getting to my favorites now. This is the “floppy” (just like Jamie’s in “My Doggie Says…“) that I retrieve when I swim at Lake Arrowhead. After all, please remember I am a Golden Retriever. I’m not as good as Jamie yet, but I really love to swim and retrieve this floppy.

10. So here we are at my absolute favorite — my “stinky.” Fred calls it my “stinky” because that’s what his granddaughter, Lauren, calls her security blanket. My “stinky” is a little stuffed puppy that belonged to Jamie. I’ve enjoyed it ever since I moved in with Fred and Barbara in March. It’s pretty amazing that it’s survived all this time, but I’m very gentle with it. I don’t really chew on it. It’s more like “gumming.” Sometimes I like to hold it in my mouth and just nibble at it a little. It’s very relaxing. Most nights, when I’m about ready to go to bed, I settle down with it. It helps me calm down after bouncing off the walls.

11. (For good measure) This one is so much like food it’s unfair to call it a “toy.” It’s a kong toy. It’s a small, hard chewie thing with a hole in the center for dog food or puppy treats. I can chew on it, but the real challenge is to try to get the puppy treat out of the hole. Like I said, it’s too much like food to really qualify as a toy.

So there you have my favorite toys. See ya’ next time!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 at 7:54 pm and is filed under Books, Callie, Relationships. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.