Avi loves soft, fluffy anything. She once had a tiger toy, when she was just a tiny off-the-plane puppy, that lasted a long time, until her razorfangs grew in. Efforts to provide her with cuddley soft toys has ended in piles of polyester and bits of carcass spread around the house, showing up in places like the bed and loads of clean laundry. We quickly discovered, as she tore into the stuffing of her doggie bed, that it was the fluff that enticed her so, and the goal of her interactions with soft toys was to destuff them as quick as caninely possible. Knowing this, I found a toy at Target that was plush, soft, and floppy...minus the stuffing. That's right, a stuffed animal with no stuffing. GENIUS!
Avi, full of glee, quickly ripped out the brains of the new racoon toy, locating the squeeker in record time and demolishing it. Any and all polyester fill that accompanied the squeeker was removed and flung about the livingroom. However, when that was all gone, the toy somehow remained, decapitated, and has remained to this day, relatively IN TACT.
We now have great fun with it - it's good to tug on, nurse on, cuddle with, and nibble. It has been dubbed "MINKUS," since J, despite the striped tail, thought it looked like a mink skin. Minkus is almost as long as Avi, and trails behind her when she triumphantly parades it around the house. It is slept with and tugged upon, and layed lovingly in the lap of myself or J, as an offering of play.
We figure some day Minkus will meet his end, but until such time, I'm happy not to be bending over plucking polyester stuffing out of every corner of my apartment!
