Another Sleepover

Yesterday morning Ray dug up his Christmas present (link to video). The wrapping paper for the beef-flavored rawhide bone was gone but the bone was still snug in it's plastic. The occasion was the kickoff of another Murphy sleepover. Rachel and Josh were off on a work-related holiday. Murphy is our guest for the next few days.

Ray and Murph and the Christmas Present

The visit started out with Ray carrying a toy into the backyard with which to impress his friend. I didn't pay any attention to it, Ray is always dragging toys into the backyard. It wasn't until later when I followed him outside to take a picture of him with his freshly unearthed present that I saw the "toy"abandoned in the mulch. It was one of my brand-new-out-of-box shoes which I had worn briefly down the street when I went to fetch Murphy. I picked up the shoe to inspect it for tooth marks (thank God it didn't have tassels) and saw that it was mostly unscathed. (Good thing. I heard that there are gypsies in town.)

She's not getting this one.

After a trip to the dogpark (link to video), Ray and I dropped Murphy at daycare. I had to attend a work function and, although I trust Ray alone in the house for a couple of hours, I wasn't so sure about leaving both of them together. Murphy has a way of stealing Ray's bones and teasing him with them that makes Ray a bit anxious. He displays his anxiety through vocalizations. His normally dulcet tones become a bit more, uh, un-dulcet. If you get close to Ray when he's yelling at Murphy about his bones, your insides liquify.

So Murphy went to daycare. I went to my function. And Ray, who had been going non-stop since Murphy entered the house, went to sleep. He was still snoozing when I returned home three hours later. I took him for a quick walk and we went to pick up his dog at school.

Murphy and Ray played outside until I locked them inside. Then they played there.

I was walking from the laundry room to the kitchen when I glanced into Ray's office (the front hall). The dogs were laying down facing each other, their lips locked together in a seemingly passionate doggy kiss. "That's new," I thought to myself. I went over to see what was going on. They were both chewing on the same thing although both had a big enough piece of whatever-it-was so that it was invisible. Hence, the 'kiss.' I pried Ray's jaws apart and extracted the thing pictured below. Murphy let go of her end (the rubbery black part).

???????????????????

I was bent over, inspecting the festive looking little thing and wondering where I had seen it before, when Murphy stood up and revealed the black stick part (below) that was hidden under her body. A cold hand gripped my heart. They had destroyed Moonie's favorite feather toy (link to video). The one she drags around the house while yelling bloody murder to tell us that she's caught that dang stick bird again. I didn't need gypsies to tell me that a trip to the pet store lay in my immediate future.

uh oh