My Present from Shawnee

Yesterday my mom got to meet Shawnee and her mom while she was on the way from the Shorty Awards in New York City. Shawnee wrote a great blog about it and since she was there, you should read that for the details.

In addition to sending me some good smells (thanks for pointing out the shoe Shawnee that was a good one) and doggy hair on mom's clothes, Shawnee sent me the neatest gift. It is a green gecko just like that little guy on the TV commercials only better - this one has two squeakers and stretches real good in the middle. As Shawnee pointed out, it is a good toy for me because it doesn't have much stuffing in it. All of you that read my bloggie should know my history with stuffed animals!

Usually even the ones without stuffing are not safe. While we were on vacation I got one of those and I just ate it piece by piece. So far so good - it's almost 24 hours and the gecko is doing great. He may be missing one of his paws but otherwise he is perfectly healthy and I have been playing with him a lot. So great toy choice Shawnee!

This is when mom first gave me the present bag

Notice I put my face all the way in the bag - I could smell Shawnee's whole family

Next I will go through my routine for testing my new toys:

It squeaks real good

It's fun throwing it in the air

I like testing my toys from all angles, especially upside down
Shawnee's mom gave my mom good advice on how to fix my eye here but
she left this one cause it matches the gecko!

The final test is the nommy level. For this test I have a video. Mom now realizes this was when I was working on eating the poor gecko's paw. I didn't quite get it before the end of the video.

My two favoritest toys right now - Gecko and my bone

This is my Buttons imitation - using my toy as a pillow!

All I can say is Shawnee gives really good presents! Her mom also gave me something called a supplement. Mom says it will make my coat even more handsome. Dad was a little worried about the "sustained energy level" aspect.

Poor Pelican

Warning: Explicit violence if you are one of my stuffed plush anipals

As many of you might know, my mom works for Virginia State Parks. She usually is in on the details when they have deep merchandise sales, like usually when they are discontinuing something. For instance, for their 70th anniversary in 2006 they had a 70" copperhead plush snake. There were stuffed snakes everywhere! I think they finally got rid of them all this fall.

I loved those snakes - one LONG toy with lots of stuffing. They were on sale a long time at $5 and mom would pick them up for me. Since I have a bad history with plush toys, $5 was a good deal. The snakes would last me a little while because as I made a hole, mom would pull out stuffing and it would be ok for a while Dad gave her a hard time but all she had to do was show dad his blanket and ask what dad would rather I chew on. The snake won every time.

Then one sad day all the snakes were finally gone. : (

The woman in mom's office, Pat, who orders stuff showed her the sale items the week before Christmas. She had shown mom the pelican before but when he was full price mom knew it would be a mistake.

You can't see but the pelican has a stick in his back side so the human can hold the puppet. The stick was plastic instead of wood but still nommy.

This was the day I got the Pelican - not a factory second. Mommy couldn't even get the picture taken before one eye was gone. Second eye followed right after the picture.

Two weeks later the eyes are gone, the beak is hanging and mom has taken out most of the beak and head stuffing so it doesn't make the house MESSY. The stick is gone too. Mom was holding it and we were playing and I grabbed the pelican and mom still had the chewed up stick. Stick went in trash. Mom is spoil sport.

This is today. Last night I ripped his tummy out so mom had to take all the stuffing from his insides. He is still fun because he is still poofy cause of his fake fur wings.

I am hoping the pelicans are still on sale.