The Death of The Big Purple Ball

For weeks now, Lucy and I have been endlessly entertained by the big purple exercise ball. She has chased up, down, and all around the yard for what is most certainly hours. I kick it, or toss it up in the air, and she chases, tirelessly, after it. Yesterday, I went down to the bottom of the yard to fetch the big purple ball and realized that we weren't going to be chasing that ball around anymore. There was an enormous hole in the ball, I don't know what it got to it, but it almost looks like someone cut a huge hole in it.

I am pretty sure that Lucy is very dissapointed that her big purple ball is gone. She watched with great dismay this morning as I put the injured purple ball into the trash can. As I dropped it in there, she let out a little whimper!

Lucy peering sadly into the trash can: "What's dat doin in der Mom? Why'd ya put my ball in da trash? You do such sillys stuff sometimes!"

Me feeling very guilty because Lucy looks so lost: "Sorry, Lucy! Your ball is broken! We'll have to get you another one."

Lucy looking at me with that hurt little look on her precious little face: "Can't ya just fix dis one ma? It's not dat old, and I love it!"

Me: " I know Lucy! It'll be okay! You've got lots of other toys that you can play with!"
Lucy: " I knows dat, Mom! But I love dat ball! I just can'ts believes it gone! Can we go right now n gets a nutter one?"

Oh boy! Don't look at me like I just killed your best friend, Lucy! I feel bad enough as it is- stop looking at me like that! That's the first toy that hasn't lived on to see another day. And I pretty much thought that ball was indestructable! I guess not!

(I would still love to know what happened to it- it must have come across a sharp object somewhere in our yard, or maybe the heat was just too much for it.) She hasn't destroyed any of her other toys. Either I'm very good at selecting indestructable toys, or Lucy's just not that abusive of toys. Don't know which it is! At any rate- we'll definitely be getting Lucy another big ball!

Lucy's ability to discover things in our yard that we didn't know existed is continuing. This morning she found this decorator frog underneath a bunch of plant life next to the hot tub. I've lived here 5 years and never seen that frog before. She made quick friends with the frog, and carried it right into the house to play with it for a little while before getting bored with the lifeless frog.

There are a ton of real frogs living in the "swamp", one of which is a rather boisterous bull frog. I'm pretty sure she ate one of those frogs one morning, because I could see her playing with something- but couldn't catch her to see what it was. Then about an hour later, she was puking up gross, slimy green stuff all over the deck. ICK, LUCY! You're not supposed to eat frogs, little one! Please don't do that again. (I'm sure the taste of that darn thing will be enough to put her off that for a little while at least!)

Lucy's Daddy and I are still on the lookout for things for Lucy to chew on to ease the pain of her incoming teeth. One of Boxer Mailing List friends suggested tying knots in old socks and freezing them. I thought it was great idea and couldn't wait to try it. Unfortunately, Lucy was not as thrilled with the idea, that entertained her for all of the 3 minutes, and now my fiance is asking why there are old socks in the freezer.

I hate giving her rawhide because it gets so gummy and I don't want her breaking it off and choking on it. She doesn't want anything to do with Nylabones, or the any of the usual "puppy teething" items. The only thing that she'll chew on for any length of time, is real meat bones. Lucy's a lot of things, but she's definitely not dumb! This meat bone kept her busy for about 30 minutes yesterday at work! I guess I need a meat bone that's 4 times the size of that one!

Most of my clothes seem to have strings on them, good for my little boxer who just loves to tug on anything string like, bad for me because I can't seem to get her off of me. This morning, she attached herself to the tie on my shorts, and I couldn't shake her for dear life. I thought strings were a cat thing? Not a dog thing. One of these days, she's gonna pull my shorts right off of me! I guess I'd better find some clothes without strings till Lucy outgrows this fascination.

Lucy is doing well without her brother in the house. She definitely is well aware that he's not here. I've caught her several times scouring the house for him, peering over the side of the bed to see if he's there. And she's definitely checking the yard for him. It's amazing how perceptive my little boxer really is.

Today is our day off! So, of course, Lucy's Human is cleaning, and Lucy's doing whatever she can to occupy her rambuctious little self. (Right now, she's sleeping, but she's been running around getting into all kinds of mischief since 8:00... I'm tired of chasing her around, so I'm sure that she's gotta be tired!)

If it's not raining this evening, Lucy and I have a playdate with Lucy's brother Tank. Grandma Sharon called yesterday morning to check in on Lucy and told me that her brother is 50-55 pounds. I can't wait to see him... And of course, I'm excited to go see the 7 boxer babies that Lucy's Aunt Chloe had 4 weeks ago. Lucy was 4 weeks old the first time I saw her! Rain, rain go away... Sure hope I don't fall helplessly in love with one of those boxer babies...