2025, animals, Games, home, pets, Uncategorized

Annoying Pet Games

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We have owned various terriers since 1989. One thing we have learned with them is that everything in life is a series of games, dead serious games that must be played to their fullest.

Our current Cesky Terrier is no exception. If he isn’t tugging viciously with his Wubba and dashing its brains out, he is chewing vigorously on his squeaky ball and tossing it around the room at our feet. You can see it in the header photo. We used to get him squeaky yellow tennis balls, but he can eviscerate those in 10 minutes, so we got him the rubber Kong ones. Those last a couple of weeks.

The dog would tell you that our frustration with his current obsession of tossing the balls at our feet while we sit in the livingroom is entirely our fault. We should have taken him and his squeaky ball to the furniture store in Sioux Falls when we bought the new sofa. arm chair, and matching ottoman. Then we could have made sure there was enough clearance under the furniture for his ball to roll under and for it to hit the wall and roll back out, or for us or him to retrieve it easily. As it is, he tosses the ball, he tries to grab it before it rolls under the sofa, and if he misses, it is stuck and he sits and cries until we retrieve it for him. This means we can use the Swiffer floor sweeper to sweep it out, get down on our hands and knees and reach under and grab it, or move the furniture. This happens multiple times a day. It is exhausting.

I tried to solve the problem by stuffing thin throw pillows under the sofa and chair to block the ball. We haven’t enough of them for all the fronts and sides of the furniture, so I plan to buy swimming pool noodles and cut them to size and see how that works. The games must go on. The only thing worse than a gaming terrier is a bored terrier.

What are your favorite games to play? How about your pets?

32 thoughts on “Annoying Pet Games”

  1. Current table top game is WingSpan.
    The Birds love to destroy balsa wood planks. A 4 inch wide x 12 inch long x 1/2 inch thick board gets shredded in 3 days.

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  3. Husband taught me cribbage early on in our marriage, and after about 10 years I could finally match him. Mexican Train is also something we will get out occasionally, and of course Wordle every night before bedtime.

    You know, Renee, there are special “risers” that you can put under the legs of a stuffed chair or couch to raise them a bit – I’d check it out, could make your lives much easier! : )

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  4. My current game is watching an 11-week old puppy play with everything she sees and get into potentially hazardous chewing situations, like lamp cords, fan cords, light strings, etc. So far potty training is almost a total failure. She will go #1 outside pretty well if I get to her in time, but #2 gets an F. She’s only done that outside twice since last Friday.

    Still no sleep for me around here. Crate training isn’t going well. I hope that the giardia problem is the cause of some of these issues, and that they will pass as it’s treated. It’s also too cold out for adequate walks for potty training (the outdoor way is the way I know). I take her out for a minute or two at a time every hour or so. I carry her out a short distance, put her down, and she goes as she runs back toward the house. I’d walk farther and stay out longer if it wasn’t so cold!

    I need to return the pen I bought because she put her head through the bars and got stuck. That’s too dangerous, so I’ll have to find one with smaller bars. I will crate her and go shopping later today. I’m waiting for a call from the vet about medication for the giardia.

    I also decided that it’s too stressful to go up the “cabin” tomorrow so I offered my week up to the other owners. So far no takers. If I don’t get anyone who wants to use it, I might try for a couple of days but I doubt it. I’m going up for Christmas anyway.

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      1. Part of the problem is giardia. The other part is the cold. We would stay outside longer if it was more tolerable her. She becomes extremely distressed when put in the crate and has big mess within about 10 minutes. She needs a bath every time – and it’s so cold.

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    2. My condolences on your potty-training woes w/ your puppy. We got lucky with our new cat. She hasn’t missed the litter box in almost 11 months of ownership. Good luck with the Giardia treatment.

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    3. Potty training a small dog in frigid weather like this is brutal, both to the dog and the owner. Arm yourself with as much patience as you can muster, Krista.

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  5. Over the years I lost interest in games. Not sure why. But it means I don’t miss games living alone. Sandra and I played a few hundred games of cribbage and of Scrabble.

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    1. I find I don’t have any competitive impulse, especially where games are concerned. I don’t care about the outcome, so games just seem like marking time.

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  8. Golf, of course, is my favorite game. But I used to love to play board games too. Chess is my all-time fave. Greatest board game ever invented (that I know of). I also loved Risk and Monopoly as a kid. I’m pretty good at Trivial Pursuit, but haven’t played in years.

    Sadly, I don’t feel that playing board games is the best use of my time these days. I always feel like I should be doing some “author business.” But inertia usually takes over and I spend most evenings watching TV with my wife.

    Our cat loves to play with foam rubber soccer balls which are just small enough to fit under some of the furniture and be unretrievable by her. I put a cushion under one piece, a one-by-two under the sofa, and a roll of screen mesh under the armoire. Yet she still finds a way to lose balls under those places. But she’s really getting good at “playing soccer.” 🙂

    Chris in Owatonna

    ***BSP*** Carleton College Craft and bake sale tomorrow from 8-2 at the Weitz Center for the Arts on the CC campus in Northfield. Lots of arts, crafts, and a few authors such as myself. Also some tasty baked goods to buy for a good cause: scholarship money.

    Saturday is the Holiday Bazaar at Corks & Pints in downtown Faribault. 11-4. Smaller than the Carleton event, but there will be perhaps 20 vendors of all kinds including me. You can also sample some local craft beer and spirits at the adjacent 10,000 drops distillery.

    Check my Events page at my website for details and exact addresses. ***END BSP***

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  9. Other dog games: Stealing and chewing socks. Drinking morning coffee if we accidentally leave our cups on the end tables. Stealing and chewing pens and pencils.

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  10. The vet is preparing meds for Maggie. They’re still not ready to pick up. She’ll get two meds for five days. The vet says it will slow down the stools (thank heaven!)

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  11. Phew, Busy Day Here!

    I love some puzzles and games. Cribbage is probably my big favorite, but I need a regular bunch of people to play with. My dad and our neighbor would play cribbage with my siblings and I when we got home from school, and we had a real cribbage culture going WITH sound effects.

    I start the morning with Wordle and the mini-crossword, then sometimes do a Word Search. Then I play Spider Solitaire and FreeCell throughout the day just for relaxation. After Thanksgiving Dinnner we played Bunko which I had not played before. We had two handicapped people at the table, and Bunko was perfect for allowing them to be part of the fun. Our friend who was with us for the meal did her homework and arrived with this game for the group.

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    1. Octordle, Quordle, Wordle in the morning (usually). We also live jigsaw puzzles… other than that we are not big gamers.

      Kitty cat does not play with toys. Her favorite game is attacking toes underneath the blankets.

      Puppy dog, in her earlier years was a toy destroyer. But then a little bit before Covid she got her first lambie toy and for some reason she did not gut that one – just nibbed it. During Covid, I had a nice gift card and the lambie toys went on sale one week — we bought eight of them. They’ve been in a bag in the closet and we take one out every six months or so. She’ll get one for solstice, which means we’ll have six lambie toys in the house at that point. In all different places.

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  13. The new kitty would play games all day if she could. She loves wand toys and has one with a fleecy strip of fabric hanging from it that she pulls along with her around the house, like a security blanket. Other favorites are simple paper balls and paper bags from the grocery store. We have to race to unpack groceries before she dives head first into the bag. She loves the bags even after they’re tattered and torn and no longer “bag” shaped. She bats the paper balls everywhere. They can be found under furniture, appliances, and in every nook and cranny. We buy little mouse toys from the pet store that have real fur and leather tails. I’ve lost count of how many of them have disappeared without a trace. I keep expecting to find a pile of them someday.

    Years ago, husband and I played backgammon a lot. We have Monopoly, Scrabble, chess and checkers, but don’t play often. I faithfully played Wordle through the pandemic but quit when I decided I didn’t want to give the NYT any more “clicks.” Haven’t found anything I like as well to replace it.

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