Just for the heck of it, yesterday afternoon I decided to look in the downstairs closet for the yellow alien, even though its being there would have meant that Fric brought it down and put it there shortly after she took it up stairs because that was the only time I was gone. Sure enough, when I moved the dog food container and peered into the corner, I discovered she had tipped over the bag I put that sticky under-the-rug stuff in, and made a little nest from which peered a pair of alien eyes. The alien remained there until late afternoon when I went out to do some snow shoveling. When I came in, the closet door was open and the alien was sitting on the edge of a step about 5 up from the bottom. By the time I went to bed, it was in the office with the short purple one and the furry ring. When I awoke this morning, it was on my bed, with the short purple one and the furry ring on the floor at the foot of the bed and the pointy head one still under the bed. Twice during the night I woke to her digging at Watson’s bed, which possibly was in response to bringing in the short purple one and the ring. The similar digging on the bed could have been in response to putting the yellow one there as well as herself.
When we went out first thing this morning, she took the yellow out and left it on the walk. When we went out later, she walked right by it and I picked it up on my way back in. As soon as I did, it caught both Bee’s and Fric’s attention. When I came into the house, I tossed it on the floor in the kitchen and she immediately dashed to it and took it upstairs where it now lies on the floor by Watson’s bed. The other purple one I found yesterday when the toy box tipped over is still where it fell downstairs, so moving around the original 4 objects seems more important to her than having a matched set.
So surrogate puppies, decoys, toys, or something else? Because dogs give birth to litters, when fetal resorbtion occurs could bitches experience something comparable to phantom pain, the feeling that something is there when it isn’t? And yet, she most certainly does not relate to those toys the same way she does to her puppies. She seems pretty clear that they’re not alive even though they’re special. It will be interesting to see what happens as the puppies get older.
Oh, and I discovered the source of the other-worldly whistle. It’s one of the pups, but I don’t know which one. Sounds like a tropical bird call. 🙂