The Best Dog Toy

The magnificant Sandy sent me a link to a toy sold at Petco that looked like it would be perfect for Alex.

They are called Bottle Toys and can be seen here. Essentially they are a stuffed animal with an old water bottle as the stuffing for the body. There are a couple of problems with these toys. First of all, all the little embellishments like arms and legs are just begging to ripped off. Also, the closure is velcro, another thing Alex loves to wreck.

What's a girl to do .....except make her own version.

First I needed an empty water bottle. Being someone who does not pay for water in plastic bottles I went to my hurricane supplies and pulled out a bottle of water. After finishing off the water I discarded the screw top as something Alex would love to break into tiny pieces and swallow.

Then I found some spare furry fabric and some pretty ribbon.

For construction I sewed a long tube with one end closed. I stuffed the closed end with some fiberfill, inserted the bottle and sew up the end.

Realizing that it looked pretty pathetic I sewed a neck and drew a face on the resulting head-like thing.

After tying the ribbon around the neck I tossed it on the floor and let nature take its course.

Once Alex realized it was his toy, he has barely let it out of his sight. He even took his walk this morning with the new toy in his mouth. See his devotion.....

He had also been trying to bury it in one of the old holes the Girls dug to get at the moles in the yard.

So there you have it. A non-sqeaky toy that has kept him busy for hours without falling apart. I think I need to a few more of these are Kemora and Kelis seem to be envious of Alex's good luck.