Ms. Giraffe is A-Rod’s only toy.  I bought it when he was around 4 months old.  I bought him this toy because of his unhappiness after his first haircut. I didn’t expect this toy would stay with him very long actually. Even to this day, I have given him other toys to play with but he never wants to play with the others, totally unlike Bailey. Bailey loves all her toys.

(More about Bailey and her toys)

I know his giraffe is very important for his anxiety. If I am not at home, I would make sure his giraffe is with him and he is rarely more than 15 feet away from it. When he took his first flight in an airplane, it was for 14 hours in the dog cargo area, I was very very worried.  The vet suggested that I should put his favorite toy and one of my unwashed clothing items in the crate with him. These two things would would help his anxiety and it really did!

After many years of playing with his special giraffe and many repairs, the whole toy has become quite tattered.  Since the giraffe is so important to him, we spent a lot of time looking for another one. After months of searching on many online stores and thousands of pages of giraffe toys, we finally found a matching one on eBay!   Unfortunately after it arrived, A-Rod didn’t like the new one.   He would look at it thinking it was his toy all ready and excited to play, but once he took a sniff he turned his head and walked the other way (his facial expression was like saying, “Imposter!”)…  We didn’t know what to do, so we decided to try tying the old one and new one together with some yarn for few months.  He would play with the two tied together, but once we separated the two to see if he would play with the new one, he still didn’t want it.   Something didn’t smell right still…  No matter what we did (washing them together, tying them, etc.) he still wouldn’t accept the new one…

One day we decided to do surgery on the giraffes.   Well, the first surgery I’ve ever performed in my life ended up being a…… head transplant!  I carefully detached the giraffe heads from their bodies.  As you know the old giraffe has been with A-Rod for nearly his entire life. I have fixed this toy many times. The neck fabric was broken in some strange shapes.  After a tense 15 minutes of surgery, I can safely say that the surgery was successful!  Thank God!  I couldn’t image what we would do if I destroyed his toy!   Luckily and finally, he loves to play with both!

I don’t know why he loves this giraffe so much. Maybe for him, this toy is so easy to carry.  A-Rod’s legs are not very long but this giraffe is pretty easy for him to walk on the stairs.. Everytime he carries it, he will stick his face inside the body ring. That is really cute and funny but other than that… the giraffe is very stinky most of time. lol…

It’s quite fun to see A-Rod plays with his giraffe. Most of time he is playing “happy humping” with it!  But his humping is very very wild. He likes to use his mouth to grab the giraffe, then use all his power to throw it high straight up in the air and then try to catch it landing. Sometimes, accidents can happen…  He has been known to thrown the giraffe into the trash can or a high coffee table… Then, his face is like “uh…oops! Mommy help me! Please!!!”     Other days if I have time, I like to pretend Ms. giraffe is missing and I ask him to find it.  I have to act professionally about it, otherwise, he would ignore me.  I need to turn my head around in distress and then ask, “Where is giraffe?”, pretending Ms. Giraffe is not there.  His face would light up then he goes looking for it. This is the only thing I ask him, and he will be so focused and determined to find it.

The little friendship between A-Rod and Ms. giraffe is very cute and funny. Life is simple but joyful 🙂