You Can Catch Me, I'm the Gingerbread Man

Stella is a spoiled dog. Not only do I buy her a plethora of toys, but so do my friends and family. The fun part is that she plays with them on her own. I keep a basket overflowing of toys on the floor in my living room. When Stella was younger, each night she would go through the basket to play with her toys. She would pick out one toy, take it out of the basket, and play with it for approximately 2 minutes. Then she'd leave it on the floor, and go for another toy. And then another. And then another. You get the idea. I didn't have to do anything other than clean them up before bed.

Then, one day, I bought yet another toy for Stella. This time it was Gingerbread Man. At first I didn't notice anything different. Stella played with the toy and then played with others. But over the next few weeks, she began to play with it more and more. Soon her other toys were neglected.

It became a rare sight that I would see Stella without Gingerbread Man in tote. She'd play with him all night and then when it was time for bed, she carried it with her and used him as a pillow. No trip was complete without him. Her favorite game was to pick him up with her mouth, throw him as far as she could, and then pounce on him. She would hop and growl and run all over the place. She pounced with a huge jump and landed on top to maximize the volume of the squeak.

It's kind of embarrassing to have a dog who always plays with a Gingerbread Man. This has been going on for the past year and a half. It doesn't matter if it's the 4th of July, Easter or Halloween. She'll be playing with a Christmas toy. That's my dog.

Overall, I embrace the Gingerbread Man. My only huge dilemma occurred earlier this week. I was fast asleep when something landed directly on my face. In a hazy state of awareness, I opened my eyes in just enough time to recognize that it was Gingerbread Man. I had one horrifying second when I realized what was about to happen. There was no time to react, move the Gingerbread Man, or cover my face. Because after that one second had passed, Stella pounced. Full force. Hard. Stellllllllllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!