December 17. “Button, I just came across a very interesting bit of news on Dog Crazy Newsletter.”

“What is it about?”

“It made sense because I just remembered how much MoJo used to play with her squeaky toy chicken and how she abandoned it once it stopped squeaking!”

“Are you serious?”

“Apparently, some dogs are very destructive with their toys. Even dogs that are generally pretty good can be extremely destructive at times. This act, in itself, can be annoying to the owner who is buying the toy. What is equally annoying is when the dog stops playing with that toy after removing the squeaker!”

“Why do dogs do this?”

“The theory goes back to nature when dogs hunted for prey. As he proceeded to kill his prey, the feeling of superiority where he held the prey in his mouth squealing away would give a lot of satisfaction to the hungry dog. This was part of their natural hunting instinct. A squeaky toy can give a dog the same kind of satisfaction.”

“I noticed Mojo abandon the silenced toy chicken for the squeaky ball. Can she distinguish between a chicken and a ball?”

“Difficult to say.”