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Rhodry Has a New ToySeptember 17, 2005 (You can sing that title to Eliza Gilkyson's "Mama Has a Boyfriend" if you know it. If you do, sorry about the ear-worm!) In between downpours yesterday I drove up to Campbell & Douglas with a generous gift certificate tucked in my backpack. Campbell & Douglas is an upscale tack and feed store that also carries dog and cat stuff. I was determined to spend the gift on -- well, not quite frivolities, but stuff I wouldn't buy on my generally hand-to-mouth budget. #1 was a purple faux-velvet saddle pad, which isn't going on Dirty Allie's back till she's had a bath -- maybe we'll inaugurate it at the Fall Fuzzy show on October 1, if we go. Then came a big jar of horse treats, a handy curry with stubby "teeth" that should be good for bathing, and a bucket-scrubbing brush. (The barn needed a new bucket scrubber, but it didn't have to be one with a two-tone purple handle and purple and yellow bristles.) Rhodry the Deprived hadn't had a new toy in ages, and I still had gift money left, so I headed to the dog room and started looking at dog toys. Rhodry loves squeaky toys. I used to worry about this, figuring that the squeak simulates the sound of small animals hypothetically caught by malamutt paws, but I got over it. Rhodry was down to one that still squeaks: a red and green plush jack that originally had squeakers in each of its eight tips (brilliant design by dog-friendly toymaker) and has since lost all but one. It's out in the front yard, where Rhodry occasionally lets his friends play with it. So I picked out two toys and gave him one tonight. He immediately left off gnawing on one of his indoor favorites, a caterpillar-like critter whose long body ripples like an overextended concertina but that hasn't made a sound in years, and checked out the new addition. I think it's a cow, a sitting-down cow; at least it has a cow-ish face with an expressive cow muzzle in bright yellow and drowsy blue-hooded eyes. It's mostly pastel pink and yellow, but the tail and the surrounding area are bright purple, and one ear is purple while the other is green. I'm downloading e-mail in one room while squeaks come from the other: Rhodry evidently approves. Eventually he will doze off with the cow between his front paws, his eyes mostly closed but his tongue making small, rapid movements inside his mouth. I've never figured out exactly what this means, but surely it's a sign of the dog with a satisfied mind.
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