Squeaker

Dear Reader/Writer,

There is one toy in our dog Zoe’s life. It is currently a “lacy” Kong-like indestructible shell for a latex gorilla with a squeaker. She has ruined every toy we ever bought her except this one. OK, the old one started to disintegrate after ten years of use. She’s 11 1/2 now so this one, along with her collars, should be good for life.

She can squeak the latex gorilla inside of Precious or Monkey Ball but can’t get to it through the shell. Genius. My husband’s idea when we were losing stuffed animals like crazy and “mommy” was gathering up batting from the floors and badly sewing the stuffed animals up in what I call surgery.

There’s another squeaker. Our dog sleeps on our bed, except if she’s touched by a foot or the sun starts rising. Then she goes UBD (under bed dog) until I get up early to take her out and feed her. Or she jumps down in error and whines by my pillow to “Otis” her up again. That’s what I did at 2:30 this morning.

Of late, I get up really early 2-4 a.m. and close over the bedroom door (I cannot shut it because she needs to be able to see her “pack” at all times to herd us. Lately, about an hour after I move to the living room or den, she squeaks the door for a while. She asks and I tell her it’s OK to come out then I shut the door to let my husband sleep until the hour he’s set his alarm for a meeting.

Yesterday, hubby was fixing the gate apparatus on my SUV as it is sticking and once it flew open on the road, that was scary. I asked him to try the hinges on the bedroom door to keep it from squeaking. He did and didn’t make a mess at all but the paper towels he used to clean up the drips smell like strong oil (stronger than 3-in-one) and I’ll clean the frig as soon as it’s light out and get rid of that trash because the smell will overcome anything I cook.

Good news is that my car gate is fixed for maybe a year, and the bedroom door no longer squeaks making life for all of us better. Zoe may squeak her Precious 1,000 times a day but it’s her treat and it no longer gives me a headache! Dee