Missing Georgie

In some ways, Georgie’s departure has been the hardest on Polly, who was his little buddy since the day she arrived here. (Well, not the very same day, because Georgie hated her guts for the first 24 hours.) They slept cuddled up in the same crate every night, even when Georgie’s incontinence made a  mess  in the crate. Polly has been barking  - first pitifully, then impatiently, then furiously— until I get up to let her out of solitary confinement in the morning. 

So I retrieved her beloved stuffed squirrel from the closet (kept safe from the plundering Dunderheads) so she would have some comfort at night. Unfortunately, pulling the squirrel out of the crate (before the Dunderheads come inside) has proven too  difficult for Mr. P. and his bad back, so I found a largish stuffed horse at Walmart  to fill the role of  bedmate. The horse is easier for Mr. P. to grab, but Polly wasn’t too sure she liked him at first. I allowed Polly into the master bedroom (usually off-limits to all dogs), sat down on the floor with her, and made the horse gallop around Polly so she would understand that it’s a plaything. Polly’s no Rhodes Scholar (bred for beauty, not brains), but she immediately grabbed the horse (which is almost as big as she is) and set about the important work of breaking his neck (over and over again), and now she’s content to share her crate with him at night. He’s not Georgie (for one thing, he doesn’t poop in the crate), but he’s company for her. On a side note, I’m not sure why a toy company thought to make a stuffed horse and how it ended up in the Union City Walmart. I have to wonder if Polly’s new horsey is a Tennessee Walking Horse, in which case he needs to start a diet and exercise program, pronto!