The Tail of the Diving Duck

The last time I bought groceries I took a short-cut down the pet aisle, I'm sure to avoid those nasties who stand with their carts in the middle of the aisle, you know, "owning" the aisle? The pet aisle happened to be the nearest, empty aisle, so I took it. As I was scurrying along I glanced to the right and noticed the toys, had to stop, and a little skinny orange duck caught my eye. After handling it and picturing Ed enjoying it, I tossed it in my cart.

Once home, I introduced the duck to Ed, who cautiously took it then dropped it. After I convinced him it was his he was ready to go out and play. Its weight is light enough, and it is soft enough that Ed can easily catch it when I throw it high for him. He loved playing with it. While retrieving it one time, he (and I) discovered it had a little squeaker in it. 

Eddie hasn't had a squeak toy for a long time and was very intrigued by it. In fact, he was so pleased with it that I went back to the store right then and bought...

another diving duck! But since I have a habit of buying several of items I Iike, including shoes and clothing, I didn't buy just one diving duck...

I bought all the little diving ducks they had! If there had been 7, I would have bought all 7, because when you find a good thing and want more later, you usually can't find them.


Later in the evening Ed was carrying around his duck, squeaking it now and then. Eventually I got busy and the next time I noticed the duck, a wad of its stuffing was sitting by my foot and the duck had a gaping whole in its stomach. The squeaker was gone. After searching, I finally gave up and again became busy. Soon enough I heard "squeaky-sqeak-squeak" and saw Ed with his head under an upholstered chair that forms a little enclosed cave underneath.


I called, "Ed, come" and he backed out of the chair, turned his back to me, and responded "squeaky-squeak-squeak-squeakity-squeaky-squeak". I said, "Ed, bring it here" and heard "squeaky...     squeak...      squeak?" Again I said, "ED" then step-by-step he reluctantly brought it to me and dropped it. I promptly put it up high. Why didn't I throw it away? Maybe because I'm trying to become a hoarder so I can star in my own show!

Two days ago I restuffed the duck and stitched its tummy back up:

I let him play with it a little more, but only with supervision, per the instructions:

Last night Beth was spending time with Ed while I was in class. When I arrived home I found this:

Even though the tag clearly states:

Although I haven't done it yet, I've decided to stitch up the duck's hole without the rugged rope tail.


I graciously submit the following as proof of my multiple-buying:

About 3 years ago I bought a little Scooby-Doo ball for Eddie at the Hell Hole (Wal-mart Super Center.) He loved it, and over the course of a week I went to 4 Hell Holes, ending up with 52 balls. Some were Barbie and Spiderman, and a few where shaped like footballs. We play ball every single day it is not raining, sometimes 4 or 5 times a day. We are now down to fewer than a dozen balls, and each time I have entered a Hell Hole I have looked for more but have never found them again.

Ed, enjoying his current Scooby-Doo ball

When I found the frisbees for 94 cents each, I bought a couple of dozen.

Ed loves all his toys