It was the perfect gift. It wiggles, vibrates and barks! it does all three. Not only that, it is made of high impact plastic that dogs are not supposed to be able to chew through. Even better, you can buy new covers for it, to add additional interest. I could see my dogs playing with it.
I ordered it from amazon and waited for it to arrive. Then I placed it in a bag and waited for Christmas morning to see the joy on their faces. We put the sack down in front of them and they sniffed it with interest. Then they walked away. We called them back. We got the box out of the sack and got the same response. We helped them open the box (they do not have opposable thumbs and were not getting any traction).
Then we had to find a screwdriver with the right sized tip. The first was too big. The second too small. The third was flat and we needed Philips head, but we made it work. The dogs would have no chance of getting these batteries in the slot. Finally, the moment of truth.
The button to activate the “Hyper Pet Doggie Tail Interactive Plush Dog Toy” was depressed. As promised it wiggled, it vibrated and it made a sad distressed barking sound. On the ground, it rapidly moved back and forth finding its way under the Christmas tree. We retrieved it after asking the dogs to do that and them turning us down flat. We tried again in a more open area-nothing. It did all it was supposed to do. They were not interested at all. One was alternating between hiding from it and ignoring it. The other acted like it did not exist. Late that night we took it to our son’s house and tried it on his cat. Tato was aloof. We ruled it an epic fail. The gift we thought was going to be received with joy was not. They were just not interested in wiggling, vibrating or barking.
On the other hand, they loved the bits of paper that fell on the floor. They stuck their heads in all the Christmas sacks. They sniffed around the empty boxes. They ran in and out of the door and played with leaves. I read an article that described the 5 best toys: stick, box, string, cardboard tube and dirt. I think the author was right.
Christmas makes me anxious when I can’t find the right gift to say what I mean, which is usually, “I love you.” “I want you to feel treasured.” I think its because the first Christmas gift said that so well that we want all Christmas gifts to be connected to that first gift.
Praying that you all have the perfect gift and it fills you with strength for the coming year.