Amusement

Before I go into too much more detail about how we inadvertently and hugely regretfully every once in a while did something awful to the dog, I need to explain a bit more about what a challenge it was to keep the dog amused, exercised and happy.

We knew instinctively that if not exercised a lot every day Molly would blow all her unspent energy on something evil. It was our quest and purpose in life to make sure she was not bored.

What made this difficult was Molly was a novelty seeker. There was nothing she loved more than a new toy and nothing failed to obtain her interest more than that same toy when, well, it wasn't the newest thing anymore.

Recalling that we got her late in September and that she was a small dog, the first six months of her life were spent of necessity for the most part indoors.  

We had a long hallway in our condo, and we launched balls, kongs, sock toys and other diversions endlessly down that hall so the dog could tear after it and bring it back to throw again. This was good exercise and it kept her happy. But our dismay was real on the day that inevitably came when we would launch the toy and she would stand stock still looking at us with an "is that all you've got?" look on her face.

And, while she had a thing for pumpkins, we didn't see this as a viable toy of choice.

So it was with some relief that we discovered, when the spring came and we could take her outside again, that Molly loved sticks in all their endless variety so that it never seemed to her as though we threw the same one twice.

This was the perfect solution. And absolutely nothing could go wrong.

Until it did. 

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Karen