How many babies is too many babies? (That's gonna be the title to my first blues song)

I hate to admit it but most of what you see scattered around our living room floor here are one night stands. It's true! Tammey and I have known about it for years now but have choosen to keep it to our selves. Everytime we bring him a new baby you can see the excitment just wash all over him. His ears stand straight up, his tail starts wagging so fast we worry that he is about to join the nub club, and he begs worst than any starving street urchin has ever! And, when we give him the new baby he instantly transforms from this happy little bouncing, tail wagging, drooling, pup into that little naked guy from the Lord of the Rings. He and his precious instantly vanish into some dark corner where he stands over it snarling and growling at anyone who even dares to looks at them. I can't count the times that I have seen him send Joni (his Great Dane big sister) running when she has come too close to him and his "new" baby. And, that is the point here, it has to be a new baby.

On our trips around the US we have almost always bought Bear a new baby either before the trip or stopped and picked one up some where along the way. I think it all started one day up in Iowa at the I 80 when I won a Beanie baby from one of those crane machines. I don't remember what type of animal it was, maybe a goat or a opossum, but I won it for Tammey and when she got into the truck with the thing Bear went absolutely nuts over it. Tammey, seeing his reaction and being the sweet Mama that she is, gave it to him. So, he does his Gollum routine and we think it's just the funniest thing that we have ever seen, that is until we go to bed and find out that he and Precious require at least half of the bed. And, if you touch her (all of his babies are hers) with your foot during the night, while trying to roll over, he gathers her up under him and protects her with all of his might and lets go with this loud arrrrrrrggggggggg woff woff arrrrggggggggg gerrrrrrrrrrr snarll gerrrrrrr snort snort woof!!!!!

Tammey touched it first and said she thought that she might have accidently kicked him in her sleep and that explained his behavior. He doesn't bite he is just very vocal. I touched it next and Precious stayed the night in the truck only because I am weak and lacked the strength to fling her through the windshield. Anyway, the next morning Bear wakes me up to go for our walk and there are those little bean things scattered all over the truck. There on the floor by the passenger side door lies Precious' limp soggy body and Bear just steps over it without as much as a glance on the way out for our his walk. When we get back into the truck Tammey was sweeping up the beans and she holds the garnled little body up for Bear and he looks at it and goes "Huh!" and just jumps up on the bed and without another word and goes back to sleep.

And that is how he is with all of his babies. Even, the really cool ones with the battery opperated voice boxes that we don't give him any more because the chews the batteries out of them. Like the purple gorilla we bought for him in Miami, Fl at the Petsmart. It only lasted as far as Atlanta, Ga where he carried it into the hotel lobby with him and sat with it in his mouth while we registered and then carried it up the elevador to the room. He just wouldn't put it down! The next day we couldn't get him to take it back to the truck! He was like, "Nope, I'm finished" That means that instead of people going "oh look how sweet, that little dog is carring it's own toys" they go "oh look that big ol mans got a teddy" cause I just paid fifteen bucks for the thing and am not going to leave it in a hotel room. Even if the eyes have been chewed off.

Now, maybe it's because we have been home for a while, but he has started pulling all of them out and just kind of laying amongst them. We always bring them home and put them in his toy box and he almost always keeps one or two of them out to just to have something to chew on or something to protect in case some one should ring the door bell. However, in the last few days he has started insisting that they all be out. And, it is hillarious to watch me or Tammey try to put them away because he will run behind us and pull them out of his toy box as fast as we can but them in. He always wants the one we just put away. We just can't figure out this new behavior. Maybe he is ready to get back out on the road. Maybe he misses playing Where's Bear!