The Death of the Hedgehog

The hedgehog used to be one of Emme's favorite toys. It was lightweight and had an usual squeak, almost a squawk. Emme loved to play with it and was often carrying it around the house. The problem is that Emme is a hard player on stuffed toys. She is very different from Rudy. Rudy will carry the toy around, squeak it, love it up, lay on top of it, but he is never destructive. Emme on the other hand chews, pulls the hair off, bites out the eyes, unpacks the stuffing, tears the fur and essentially slowly destroys fluffies. If we notice the hard play with a toy, we will tell her to leave it, which works for a while. We give her a bone or other chew toy to play with. Later she is back again slowly dismantling the stuffed toy. Last weekend she killed the hedgehog while we were distracted eating dinner. Many times I repair a stuffed toy by sewing shut an empty eye socket or mending a torn seam. The hedgehog was beyond repair with bits of fur and stuffing all over the floor and was sent to the fluffie graveyard in the sky. I hope Emme grows out of this.