I had written over on the Ratbone Digest about Taffy and her toys. She doesn't play with the regular dog toys, but she adores the toys that are called pip squeaks. These toys have a motion activated "voice" that repeats the sound that animal would make three times. For example, her little orange and cream monkey does this high pitched monkey squawk and her pig oinks and her donkey brays. The Octopus does a dit, dit dit type sound but who really knows what sound an octopus makes?
Anyway, when I set off the toys to make their sounds, Taffy goes nuts!! She runs to get them if I have tossedd them and she will grab them, shake them and then takes them off to hide them. She "buries" them in the house. One burial site is under the orange wingback chair in the living room, another place is in her day bed in the living room, and she will also "dig" in my bed and push the toy under the pillows or the blanket.
At night she brings one of them to bed with her. First thing after waking up and giving me as many face kisses as she can before I struggle awake and stop her, she then grabs the toy and takes it to her crate in our room.
The other day she had the little monkey and Aka wanted to go outside so I went to the door to let them out and she ran outside with monkey in her mouth and proceeded to bury him in the dirt!! She then went potty and played a bit and then she went over dug him up and came in the house.
I had to make her come and give it to me so I could at least shake the excess dirt out of it. (Then I went and got the dirt off the sheets on my bed!) Yesterday she took a different toy outside and buried it but didn't bring it in the first time. Later in the day she asked to go out and got that toy and brought it in, but dropped it my feet so I could do the shake thing. (smart girl)
However, it was this evening that got me totally tickled. We were outside after supper, I had a glass with ice in it and was working the crossword puzzle. Aka and Taffy were busy taking care of the potty thing, then playing, following the scent trails of all sorts of creatures who had the nerve to venture into THEIR backyard and in general having a good time.
I finished my drink and took the glass and tossed the ice over into the yard on the grass. The dogs love this as they chase the falling ice cubes and then proceed to lick them and if they are small enough to eat them!
I noticed that Taffy licked the first one she got to but then she picked it up in her mouth and took it to one of her favorite outdoor digging spots and BURIED the ice cube.
I started to giggle and just couldn't stop! What a riot this dog is. But the best was to come. In a few minutes she went back to dig it up, but it was GONE!!!  
Oh how I wished I had had a camera then. She nosed around in the dirt for quite a bit of time before giving up. Poor baby obviously doesn't get the idea of solid state back to liquid!!  She came over to me and looked at me as if I had maybe gotten it. Poor baby, no ice cube for her!!
Wouldn't it be interesting to be able to know what they are thinking? That's our Taffy!! |