Graham the Destroyer

I'm not sure what's gotten into Graham lately. Maybe he's having a rough week. For some reason he decided to zero in on a toy and destroy it! Graham has a thing about trying to break squeakers in the dog toys. At first we just thought he was trying to destroy the squeaker but for some reason he zeroed in on his birthday cake toy and he was not going to let that one go.

We purchased Graham the birthday cake toy when we were in Galena, IL for our "not our honeymoon" honeymoon. Our trip was over his birthday so we thought we would bring him back a present. He loved it! It was the right size to fit in his mouth so he could easily carry it around. I think we had a few weeks where it even came to bed with us at night. Sometimes he would forget about the toy and then get all excited when he found it again. For some reason a couple weeks, he not only found it, but he had to destroy it! He was so obsessed with this toy that if we took it away and placed it somewhere he would cry until we gave it back! Josh put it on the table in the other room and he spent at least an hour circling the table crying! After he broke the squeaker we figured the obsession with the cake would be done but we were wrong! He just kept chewing and digging at the toy. At one point we did have it hidden but he had the reaction from his shots at the vet so I gave it back to make him feel better. That was a BAD idea. The toy made it to bed with us the next night and would not make it through the night.

We hadn't even fallen asleep for the night and the toy was done for. A hole had been chewed it in it and the squeaker was pulled out. Luckily most of the stuffing stayed inside! Josh quickly took it away and I hide it in my nightstand. I have a trash next to the bed but I knew if I put it in there he would see it from the bed and spend the night trying to get the trash can. He wasn't happy with us for taking it away! Well, Graham is smarter then your average bear. He knew the birthday cake was somewhere. My drawer to my nightstand  hadn't closed and he saw a small glimpse in it. I think Graham literally cried himself to sleep that night. He spent the night on my pillow crying. For the rest of the week anytime he was in the bed he wouldn't let his eyes off that night stand, even after I shut the drawer! During the day he pace around the nightstand crying. I'm not sure if he just finally gave up on the toy or decided to move on because a week later we had a new obsession.

At some point in time we acquired a purple squeaky dog. I think it came in a pack with a green and a orange one that are buried in the dog toy bin. I had pulled the purple dog out along with other toys when the birthday cake toy obsession started. I thought maybe I could distract him with other toys. Well it worked, but to late. After Graham gave up on the busted birthday cake he moved onto the purple dog. He zeroed in on his target, brought it to bed, and I awoke to piles of fluff littering our bed. Purple dog had died.

Not sure what got into Graham but after destroying the purple dog he has calmed back down. I think it something to do with his squeaker obsession. Both toys where destroyed and squeakers were removed. I think we grabbed the birthday cake squeaker away before any damage could be done but the purple dog squeaker got pretty chewed up. I even got Graham playing and throwing around a piece of the purple dog squeaker the next night while watching TV. 

On a sad note, it's sad that Graham has to destroy toys and I'm upset that he destroyed the birthday cake. Even Lola enjoyed the birthday cake toy. On a positive note, We have more then enough toys for the dogs so getting rid of two toys was probably something that needed to be done.