Plush Animal Lover's Day. Not.

Well I had a fabulous birthday.  Thanks to all who sent me best wishes!  My human was a bit jealous – she said I got more birthday greetings than she did on her birthday!  I didn’t want to tell her it’s no surprise – I mean I AM more entertaining than she is.  And her “adventures” pale in comparison to mine.  And I didn’t want to remind her that I’m the reason she has as many friends as she does.  She’s so lucky I picked her.

Anyway, I had an extra long game of fetch yesterday AND we had special new dog treats made of Greek yogurt , veggies and berries. They are supposed to be an “anti-oxidant” blend.  Who cares.  We’ll eat anything.  But they did taste good.   In the .0025 seconds it took to eat one.

 And we all got ANOTHER treat!  A scoop of tuna fish in our meal.  Now tuna for dogs is not supposed to be all that good –if eaten on a regular basis.  But a treat every now and then (like for a special birthday) is FINE.  The canned tuna packed in water is better than the tuna packed in oil.  We LOVED it.  My human sang Happy Birthday and everything.

And THEN she decided to “try” something with us.  We all know how we LOVE a game of “find the bunny.”  That stuffed bunny is beginning to look a bit ratty – but we still love him.  What we didn’t know, was that my human had looked at the calendar – and today is “Plush Animal Lover’s Day,” so she wanted to surprise us.  You see, once upon a time, my human used to collect old Teddy bears, AND for some God-forsaken reason she ALSO used to collect stuffed Bernese Mountain Dogs.  Now let’s be clear here – not the taxidermy version – that would be creepy – but toy stuffed Berners.  And she has several that are almost life sized.  BUT they have been packed away in a closet for years.  And that’s where her “idea” came in….

I always get to play "find the bunny" first while my brothers are sequestered, squeaking and moaning in another room.  So my human hid the bunny, and I went to find it – three different times.  I raced into the bedroom, and the bathroom and proudly came back with my find.  Then my human hid the bunny downstairs.  What I didn’t know was that she had taken a couple of stuffed Bernese, and put them in the middle of the room…  Well I raced downstairs and glanced over and nearly DIED.  What the HECK were THOSE?!!!!!!  I dropped the bunny.  And I was suspended.  My human came down and asked me what was wrong.  What’s WRONG?!  Paxton has called in reinforcements!!!!!!!!!  I would NOT go near those things.  My human moved one and I nearly passed out.  I RACED away.    Then I played hide and seek with one – as long as the couch was between us.  Finally my human had to sit on the floor next to the stuffed dogs and toss treats so I would come closer and closer.  It took QUITE a while before I got up the courage to actually SNIFF one.  And yes, I am the same dog who was willing to get up close and personal with a porcupine!  After about 15 minutes, I FINALLY agreed to sit next to the beasts to take a photo.  At which point I was a BIT embarrassed by my earlier fear.  To top it off, when Frodo and Paxton played the same game, they looked at the Bernese and came right back with the bunny.  They could not have cared LESS about the cotton-hearted-creatures.

So that was my birthday.  Great treats, fun fetching, lots of great wishes and a bit of humble pie thrown in for good measure.  And today, I’m hoping I can meet those plush Bernese again.  THIS time, I’ll be prepared.  We’ll just SEE who wins the game now…

©  Linda Wozniak