Toy Surgery

Life is a hoot with a big Golden named Reilly...Life of Reilly to be exact because he fell into one when we adopted him. He came to our family from the local humane society as a 12-month old totally untrained puppy. Yup...inside and out.  That was interesting training! Golden Retrievers are wonderful pets and Reilly is the third one we've had the pleasure of owning. They are "perennial puppies" and never slow down until they're way up in age, say 9-10 human years old.

Reilly likes his toys: balls and stuffed animals. He's very ball-dominant, so it's very easy to get his attention by just holding that ball and calling him when he's out sniffing for the local doe or bunnies. He also LOVES his stuffed animals. But he also loves to tear them up....fast. A new stuffed animal survives about 5 minutes. Tops. The stuffing ends up all over and he's as happy as a clam because he's destroyed the prey, thoroughly, efficiently and quickly. Witness the destruction of hedgehog below and the green guts (stuffing) everywhere. The hedgehog isn't happy but Reilly sure is!

So the poor hedgehog, and any other victims, are sent to the Toy Surgery, i.e., my sewing room, for repair. I don't get around to repairing them often because they return way too quickly. But Reilly will come into my sewing room when I'm there stitching and look around, sniff the air and immediately know there are patients needing surgery.

He sits down (without any command from me) and patiently waits

until I get up, retrieve the special heavy duty thread, a long needle and start stitching up the patients. The thread is old, but still good, heavy duty Coats and Clark black thread. It's size 8 thread and would be good for carpet repairs, and it's perfect for these toys.

At this point Reilly is laying down waiting in eager anticipation for the recovered patient.









Which I surrender only to know it will return to the surgery in a little while and the cycle will start all over again.

Aren't pets wonderful?  They make you smile and comfort you when you're sad. And they keep you in stitches....literally!