Anyone who owns a dog will tell you that they can easily become attached to their toys and will often favor one over the rest. Dogs are known to carry their favorite toys around like a comfort blanket, chew on them, and cuddle up to them when they’re sleeping, so in time, those toys begin to get old and worn.
But what happens when your dog’s favorite toy becomes so tatty that it’s time to throw away – but then you pay a visit to the shop where you purchased it from and it turns out they don’t sell them anymore?
Well, that was exactly the case for a dog in this next story, but the store pulled out all the stops to make sure that he would always have enough of his favorite toy!
Marley is a trained autism service collie who lives with his mom, Hayley Martin. Whilst out shopping with her one day, he came across a soft toy in the shape of a strawberry and immediately fell in love.
He made it clear to Hayley that he’d like the toy, please, so she purchased it for him. From that moment onwards it was his favorite toy.
Marley played with his toy so often that unfortunately, after a year in, it had become so tattered that Hayley had no choice but to throw it away.
“Its last legs was when it got soaked and covered in mud and washing it couldn’t save it,” Hayley told The Dodo.
Hayley went straight back to the store to purchase a new strawberry for Marley, but she was disappointed to find that the toy had been discontinued. Marley was such a great help as her service dog, and she really wanted a way to repay him for all of his hard work. She just knew that she had to get her hands on the strawberry toy again, so she began to post online and ask if anyone knew where she could get the toy from.
In a stroke of luck, the manager from the very same store who sold the strawberries happened to come across Hayley’s post and immediately got in touch with her.
She told Hayley that she could send Marley two strawberry toys, and Hayley was over the moon. But when the package arrived, Hayley and Marley both had a surprise. Instead of two strawberries, there were twenty!
Hayley was overjoyed, and Marley was absolutely over the moon.
“Marley was shocked,” Hayley said. “He didn’t know what to do! He was so gentle about it all but was so excited! He spent an hour going through them all giving each of them a nudge so they would squeak!”
It’s so lovely of the store manager to send over some of Marley’s favorite toys, and we hope that they last him for many years to come! He certainly deserves them.
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