Ray and the Quacking Skunk-Tailed Heart

Ray has been at daycare the last couple of days while I've been at work. So today before I picked him up, I stopped at Tuesday Morning, which is in the same strip mall, to see if they had any dog toys. Ray tends to go through dog toys pretty quickly and Tuesday Morning is a good place to buy weird dog toys (although it's hit-or-miss if they have anything for big dogs). I bought a leopard-print-fake-fur-covered tennis ball with a striped rope running through it, and also a hardish-rubber heart with a skunk tail attached that, when you squeeze the heart, makes a sound like a duck (told you they were weird).

I then headed over to Just Fur Pets to get Ray. Chance and Kristen were working. Chance said "Ray had a good time with a Pug today. He was playing with it but he looked like he wanted to eat it. Actually, I think he was eating it but the Pug didn't seem to mind. I think he liked it." "Ray," I said to my dog, "I told you not to eat Pugs, they make you fat." Kristen and Chance laughed. Kristen said, "The Pug's name is Mango. The owner has one named Kiwi and got this one and named him Mango." I figured Ray must have been confused by the name. He probably thought he was eating fruit.

I took my dog and headed home. When we exited the car, I was carrying the bag with the new dog toys. Ray excitedly grabbed the skunk tail that was hanging out of the bag and started to tug (how did he know it was there? it's not like it actually smelled like skunk). I held on to the bag and tried to make it to the front door. Ray pulled the skunk-tailed heart out of the bag and lay down on the grass to try to remove the heart part of the toy from its packaging, picking at it with his teeth. I pulled at his leash but he didn't move so I grabbed the skunk-tail and led him to the door while he held on to the heart. By the time I got the front door open, Ray had lost interest in the toy and was standing at his food cabinet waiting to be fed.