emergency 'surgery'.

Our dear sweet Geekyhound lives her life surrounded by temptation. Soft, furry, sometimes enticingly squeaky, our stuffed animal menagerie is usually scattered around the house. She has her own stuffed animals, but she seems to prefer the ones that belong to the children. She is a dog with retriever traits, who likes to greet you with a "gift" of something fuzzy. We spend half our lives calling out "Drop it" and wiping drool off polyester fur coats. Of late Geekyhound had lulled us into a false sense of security. She was picking toys with regularity, but had not harmed a hair on a glassy eyed head. Until today.

A raucous game of hide and seek, which always brings out her wild side, resulted in the snatching of a toy.  The temptation finally became too much and this is what Geekygirl and I found:

I was reminded of a news story from a few years ago. A doberman named Barney who was employed to guard a teddy bear museum exhibit, went rogue one day and destroyed the precious antiques. I suspect that the poor beast, suffering the gaze of the delicious furry treats for days, just couldn't control his desire for one moment more. I think Geekydog reached the same frustration level this afternoon.

The victim was a purple velvet pony, quite beloved as she was brought to Geekygirl by the 'pacifier fairy' a couple of months ago. Pony often shares her bed and was held in quite high esteem. When she saw the poor thing torn apart, her face broke into wails,  a scene so predictable and yet so very sad. I admit I shed a tear myself. It is silly, but it somehow represneted to me how powerless I am to prevent her from getting hurt and upset. I can't even keep her precious toys away from the dog.

Still, I may never have become 'vetmummy', but I"m pretty nifty with a needle, so a few long minutes later Pony was restored to quadraped status:

She has a few scars, but I was quite pleased with my emergency surgery.

Geekygirl was not so easily satisfied. She didn't like the way the scars felt on the toy's previously smooth legs. She threw the poor thing on the ground when I offered it back to her in her bed that night. I was a little sad to see her reject my careful repairs. I sat next to her and spoke to the stuffed pony, telling it that it was going to be OK, and that even though it wasn't perfect any more, Geekygirl would still love it and treat it kindly. She threw it back on the ground.

But when I peeked into her room later Pony was tucked up beside her on the pillow.

The next day she asked me to put the toy "in a very very high up place where Geekynhound can't get her", and asked me "Why did Geekyhound hurt my pony?", and told me she was afraid that it would happen again.

I realized that she has become wary of loving the toy. The trauma of seeing it torn apart caused her to detach from it a little.

Four is young to learn that maybe you shouldn't love something too much, in case it gets destroyed or taken away, but when you live with a dog in a house full of stuffed animals, I guess it is a lesson learned early. I only hope I can repair future hurts so easily.