What to Do With Toys and Balls Afterward?

[anngie]

I guess this is a good place to post that we have adopted a very small German Shepherd girl. We got her from Ga German Shepherd Rescue. She is about 50 lbs and around 2 yrs old. We have bought her some new toys and she is playing with a few of Bandit's balls. It is not as hard as we thought it would be for her to have them. This is a picture of Abigail. She is very sweet and petite. We are thrilled to have her.

[Stosh]

Congratulations! She's so pretty with such a sweet face. I'm sure she's enjoying Bandit's favorite things

[anngie]

Well, his x-large Orbee balls were his favorites and his very favorite rests with him. His other 2 were worn out, gummy and gone. Abigail is a small girl so she is playing with balls that were not used much by him. She has a new stuffed dog that she sleeps with already.

[skischool]

I buried my Jacob with his favorite toys and his collar.

[HannahK]

I live on a farm so I got to bury my animals. When my horse passed away I buried him in his show halter. When my dog passed away I buried him next to my horse wrapped in his favorite blanket. He never was into playing with toys so I didn't have to worry about them. I kept his collar though and its looped around his picture.

[mysweetkaos]

I've thought about this a lot lately. Old K doesn't have as much time left as I would love to believe. He has one very special ball, that will be going with him at that time. That is the only toy he has ever really liked. Due to his chewing ability we have to replace it every 6 months or so, but we've always gotten a red one. He has been known to get in the trash to take the busted up pieces of the old one out when we bring a new one home. All the other toys/beds are not mutually exclusive to him. I will keep his collar and tags.....but that ball I don't think I could watch Sherman play with it after K is gone...

[Scarlettsmom]

We kept all the toys in the basket, just as Paige left them. The very FIRST thing Scarlett did when she walked in our house was go right for the toys and flip over the basket. She picked up Paige's favorite duck. For us, that was the turning point in allowing ourselves to remember the things we loved about Paige, without it being so painful. Scarlett still plays with Paige's old toys and the duck is still a favorite.

[Dooney's Mom]

I kept skye's collar and tags buried her with her favorite blanket and bone. I took the rest of her stuff to the humane society and donated it all.

[Alexandria610]

Sorry for your loss.

As others have already said, do what makes you most comfortable. Keeping the toys, if you can bear to watch other dogs play with them, is great. But if you can't even look at them because you might think of your loss, then the local animal shelter is a GREAT place to donate animal things you no longer use. Speaking from a shelter standpoint (I'm a volunteer at one) we are overly joyed to receive any item we can to keep the dogs we have happy and content.

I'm glad to hear that your new adoptee is using some of the balls, though and yeah, I'm a huge lover of keeping the collar and tags of a passed animal. Call me sentimental!

Best of luck on your choices.

[dustymedic]

We threw away Sandy's rope toy and her beef bones. The hard rubber toys and Nylonbones are in the basement. Heck, one rubber bone and Kong have been through 4 dogs already. I'll sanitize them in a few weeks and save them until our new girl is big enough to play with them. I still have some puppy toys that have already been through a couple of dogs...