{06dec2010: Kyjen Toys Review}

In an effort to comfort Darwin after her first day of new day care, I bought a toy from their little retail area.  It was a fleece tug ball:

image via Kyjen
Whenever we go to Friday's house Darwin always digs through Friday's toy box and pulls out her fleece toy so I thought Darwin would have fun with one of her own.  Well she had too much fun with it and it was in pieces within a couple days... in fact there are still pieces in her toy box and strewn about the living room.
Well I contacted Kyjen just to see what this fleecy toy was made out of hoping it was made out of recycled fleece or something.  Darwin LOVED the toy and I'd feel better about buying and letting her shred more if they were recycled and I wasn't totally being a huge landfill contributor.  Turns out they aren't made of recycled fleece, but they did offer to send Dar a toy to review.  We had just received the great prizes from Augie and Ti so I held off on giving Darwin the Kyjen toys for review.
They sent two toys. One was the fleecy bone.  


While it's a fun toy and supposedly good for cleaning your dog's teeth and gums while playing, it didn't hold up very long and by the end of the night was in pieces.  She did like playing with the pieces too though!
The second toy they sent was by far the best.

The invincibles toy boasts that even after the squeakers get punctured they still squeak.  I don't think Darwin has punctured a squeaker yet because it's still squeaking, but maybe she has and it's just really invincible!
I was afraid she'd chew a hole through him, but it's been a few weeks and even through all the eye chewing (though they are felt eyes and not plastic eyes which she seems to rip out quite easily) it's still in one piece.


Here's a quick video of her first reaction to her new toy.

She LOVES the squeakers.  And like I said, it's been a few weeks and it's still holding up and keeps her entertained.  It's length also makes it good for tugging.  
If you're still looking for Christmas gifts for your favorite pup, I'd say the Invincible snake from  Kyjen would be a great gift to find under the tree!
Thanks Kyjen!!!

{18nov2010: Sally the Camel}

Jason was in Dubai and Oman for a work trip and to make up for the week and a half he was gone, he brought back a gift for Darwin.  His suitcase out in the living room when he got home and Darwin kept shoving her nose in it trying to find what was in there for her.  After nosing around, Jason pulled out a camel!  (When I think of camels, the first thing that comes to mind is Barney's song, Sally the Camel, why? I don't know.)


I'm usually not a fan of buying new stuffed things for Dar as she's gotten in the habit of destuffing them (usually in 24 hours).
Once she got her gift, she quickly started gnawing on her ear and tail.

Amazingly it's been over a week and Sally the Camel is still stuffed!

{30june2010: wordless Wednesday)

George the new giraffe toy edition (thank you Juneau!)




 

{03feb2010: wordless Wednesday}

How to keep a great dane busy (for a little while) version:

{148 days old}

The nice thing about summer in Seattle is how perfect the temperature usually is (I say usually, cause this year we hit record high's in the 100's).  The other great thing is the heat made Darwin nice and lazy.  Now that it's fall/winter and the temperature has dropped from 80's to 50's, all that pent up energy is coming out. 
Back on the 4th of July, we were planning a roof top bbq with views of the fireworks on Lake Union.  The nice warm day, meant Darwin was nice and calm.  
Started the day off with some breakfast and ice cold water.

Then it was a bunch of lazing about.

At one point she buily up enough energy to dig a toy out of her toy box, but that was about it.  She only had enough in her to lay on the floor and mouth it.

 {I'm pooped!}

She was pretty much like this all day.  We weren't sure how she'd handle the fireworks, so we put her in her crate before they started, and when we went to get her out she seemed totally fine.  We then all got to enjoy this view:

{60 days old}

We work in a great office.  I mean, how many work places would let employees bring in 5 day old puppies and take time out of the day to feed them and watch over them for weeks.  On this day the office threw Jason and I a surprise puppy shower!

We thought we were just having a potluck lunch for the start of spring, but it turned out to be for us!  Food, gifts, balloons and even a giant Darwin... which she had to inspect for herself.

She got this cute personalized cookie from Three Dog Bakery.

And a bunch of other fun toys.
One toy that our boss gave her was a rubber squeeky porcupine.  We took it home and set it out for her to play with.  Her initial reaction was hilarious.  Take a look:

 She loves all her aunties and uncles at work and still has and plays with most of the toys she got that day.