Silly old bear

Chokydar got a rawhide bone for Christmas. It was a rather large one, but true to Chokydar fashion, by evening on Christmas Day it was well on its way to dismemberment.

By this evening it lies in three pieces, barely recognizable. As we began our bedtime routine, Chokydar gleefully chewed on what once was the knot at one end of the bone. I lay Evelyn in her crib so as to quickly take Chokydar outside and called Choky over to put her on her leash. She brought the gnarled stump with her.

Shaking my head I said, "You can't take that outside with you." But being rather unwilling to touch this chicken-broth-soaked-puli-spit-saturated-stump-of-yuck, when she wouldn't put it down I finally just shrugged and snapped on her leash. She trotted down the steps clutching it protectively, as if had she left it in the nursery Evie surely would have claimed it.

Now, I didn't witness this part, but for all I can assume, she deemed it in poor taste to have the Stump of Yuck in her mouth while she took care of business, because when I bent down to take off her leash once we were again inside I realized it was gone. She no longer had it in her mouth. As soon as I had unhooked her, she ran first to the nursery, to the last place she'd been enjoying it in the house. She circled the room expectantly and, upon not finding it there, ran to the living room, where she'd had it previously. I could hear her tearing around the room, searching for it fruitlessly.

Shaking my head again, and because Evie was, thankfully, happily engaged in a conversation with her feet, I called Choky back to the hallway, snapped on her leash again and led her outside once more, where, after a few moments of searching the grass in the dark, she found the beloved Stump of Yuck and brought it back inside, tail wiggling in triumph.