I forgot to check the front patio for packages yesterday so I wasn’t surprised to find a couple of package sized envelopes sitting on the patio this morning. However, I was surprised to see that one of those envelopes was for Skeeter, from Duncan.
You remember Duncan, right? She’s my mom’s dog? The one I dog-sat last year? The one who doesn’t bark? Right — that Duncan.
You might also remember that my mother left me a very, very long printed list of instructions for taking care of Duncan, Miss Priss, the fish, the plants, and the house. Most of the instructions were related to Duncan and one of the line items was something like…
“After you come home, she’ll grab her duck and carry it around the house for awhile.”
And it’s true. Duncan did that.
What’s also interesting is that Skeeter does this too. Or something very similar.
If we leave her at home, she will grab a stuffed toy of some sort and carry it around the house for awhile after we get home.
It’s cute. Even if Skeeter’s babies are a lot more dead than Duncan’s duck.
Anyway, back to the package for Skeeter.
I decided to hand her the envelope to see what she’d do with it.
Duh. How dumb was that? She started chewing it. And eating the paper.
So I took the big envelope away and found a Christmas gift bag inside (which caused me to kind of roll my eyes) so I handed the gift bag to Skeeter to see what she’d do. (Right, that’s me, still being dumb.)
She started eating the gift bag. She did not particularly care what was in the gift bag, she was happy to eat the little rope handle and the tape and the tag and just the whole bag really.
I decided I’d better put a stop to that paper eating thing, so I nudged the bag and the real present fell out.
A duck! Like Duncan’s!
Skeeter loved it. For the three minutes it too, her to rip a hole in it and strip the squeaker.
And pull out all of the stuffing and bury it in the yard (briefly) so Koto couldn’t play with it.
Seriously. Three minutes.
She still loves the Duncan duck but not as much as she loved it while she was destroying it.