Merlin and his favorite toys

Jerod and I went to Petsmart on Thursday to get Merlin something other than my blankets, books and arm to chew on. We came home with a new Nylabone, an no stuffing alligator and a rope for pulling. The alligator lasted all of 1 hour. He slowly pulled the fins off and then ripped it open and pulled out the plastic inside. Jerod and I decided no more soft chew toys for our dog or we'd be going to the store every day to get him a new one. His favorite is still the Nylabone. If you're going to get a dog, even a dog that isn't considered a "chewer" this is an awesome toy. Merlin never gets bored of this thing and my parents dog who normally doesn't chew anything but food or a treat loves this thing. Him and Merlin tease each other with it whenever they are together.

For some reason though lately, Merlin ventured into our office and found the Ty Beanie Baby praying bear. I keep telling him no but he keeps going back to get it. Yesterday while I was sitting with my laptop in the kitchen, I hear him run upstairs and fly back downstairs. He had the praying bear in his mouth and he dropped it right in his water bowl! At this point I'm laughing when I should be getting upset with him. The bear was all dirty, stinky and at this point saturated. Merlin drank some water, while this dumb bear was still in his bowl. Grabs it and precedes to drip water all over the kitchen floor.

Here's the casualty:

Here are some more cute pictures I took while he was calm enough to let me:

He's getting so much better at listening, and he does wonderful with people now. We need to work out being so distracted though. He LOVES other dogs and he'll almost pull your arm off to get to a dog if you're on a walk. This is slightly problematic, so hopefully sooner rather than later we'll get him some obedience training. But we love him! He follows me around the house and I like having him especially when Jerod is not home. It's never boring :-)

dmj