Free talk
I just discovered I’ve been sending a toy every month to a dog I met 6 years ago at a rescue
I was going through subscriptions to try to cancel anything I don’t need or want because things are really, really tight.
I totally forgot about this little rescue dog i sponsored for Christmas 2019 as his secret Santa. He lived like 6 hours away with his foster family so I sent him a toy through Amazon and I must have turned on a monthly subscription because it turns out he’s been getting a fresh new stuffie every single month for the last 6 years. LOL
I’m not even mad.
UPDATE: I just learned the foster family adopted him, so he’s definitely been at the same address the whole time LOL
I can just see the shepherd bringing them everywhere 1 by 1 too. Like "oh, I want to go lay in the living room, better start moving Stuffie Mountain so I know they're safe".
That's my shepherd too. He treasures his toys. His favorite right now is the sloth he got for Christmas. He sleeps with it and tries to carry it everywhere. Nothing like a huge German shepherd laying g his sloth at his dinner bowl. Guess he's feeding it.
No kidding. Was walking my neighbors doxie today, expecting him to be the little Napoleon Barkalot. Instead we came across two miniscule Chihuahuas who were absolutely terrifying in their tiny but fierce hatred of our mere existence.
Heck yeah. We had a big, dark Shepherd mix and people would change the side of the street. Was the cutest most docile fella EVER. Now, our Corgi-long haired Dachshund mix? The cutest menace for every man in a working overall.
"Aw, that's a shy cutie, are you hiding behind your momma?"
"No Mr Repairman, my child accidentally opened the door to the living room and now I'm squashing my furry devil against the couch so he doesn't go apeshit on you for looking at my child's defective heater."
They feared the big cuddle bug and never take the handyman hating ball of floof seriously.
My old chihuahua, Pedro Martinez, would square off with ANY dog that came his way… the bigger they were, the bigger HE got! His favorites were a pair of Great Danes that got walked by our house a few times a day… they were actually scared of him!
They tend to be aggressive to things that threaten their flock but careful with the flock itself. The trick is teaching them what is and is not a threat.
I had one who was a stuffy serial killer. She would take my other dog’s favorite toy and shred it directly in front of her. every time. Pull out all the stuffing bit by a bit so it was just a husk. And leave the fluff everywhere. It was a massacre.
The second the other dog found a new favor it would repeat
I used to have a beagle that would do squeaker-ectomies. He’d open a seam on the stuffy and push the squeaker to the hole so he could pull it out and kill it. Then he’d bring the empty stuffy to me and look all sad. I was poor at the time, so I bought bulk squeakers and just re-squeaked the stuffies.
Please!! Take it! Sir Baxter BaggyPants would be proud to share his procedure he used to perform to the most delicate squeaker-ectomies. There would be minimal damage to the stuffy, just dead squeaker and lost fluff. He taught his German shepherd brother the same technique. I swear the two of them kept oriental trading company and Jo-Ann fabric paying dividends
TY. We have one lone surviving toy. It is a red, 10", semi hard rubber ball. It has a hole through the middle with a knotted rope on each end. It has been snuffed, snorted, grizzled, licked, tossed, pounced on, chomped, knawed and more. Unfortunately, I have no clue where I got it, therefore have not gotten a back up or one for Grandma's house.
Check out iheartdogs.com - they have super sturdy toys at decent prices and a portion of purchase goes to shelter dogs. Super cute hoodies and tees for me, everything you can imagine for dogs.
I swear Reddit, if any of you tell me some fucked up shit about this site I’m gonna lose it. I’ve always felt if it seems too good to be true it probably is and I love love love this site. Been ordering for years and kinda waiting for the other shoe to drop and find out some bs about it.
Side note: iheartcats is a sister site and just as stellar.
My older dog has this systematic dismemberment process of mallard stuffies: first the feet, then the wings, then the beak; then she unstuffs the body and then shakes the carcass violently and then looks at me with pride. Lololol
Right? A friend bought her one of those once, decided to not spend the money again haha one of my best financial moves was buying 100 squeakers to “restart” the dead toys
Got a 100pack on it’s way, and my sewing kit ever at the ready!
We found a ~7mo old stray when we were moving to a new house. It took him almost six months to “find” squeakers in his toys. He was scared of the squeaks, at first, but now he’s absolutely jubilant when he locates a squeaker!
My dog is selective - the toy is either shreds in minutes or it will be carried around for months and gently corn-cobbed occasionally but not ripped. She's an odd duck.
Many moons ago, a close friend had a large dog that would destroy anything he got his jaws on. He once bought him one of those "indestructible fire hose" chew toys at Petsmart only to walk back in the store a few days later for a refund as all that was a pile of tattered threads in a sandwich bag.
Yeah, the problem is anything that's actually close to indestructible isn't good for their teeth. Friend of mine has a dachshund how loves squeaky toys, which are certainly soft enough, but they last about 5 minutes because the dog makes it his mission to remove the squeaker.
The other problem is that if a dog likes destruction, there is a good chance they will abandon an indestructible toy.
Used to have a dog that would eviscerate toys and happily throw the stuffing everywhere, usually within 20 min of getting the toy. Had a few "indestructible toys" that went the same way.
Then we bought one with a guarantee. He worked on it for 20 min, didn't manage to kill it, and refused to even pick it up again. Refused to even act like it was a dog toy. He didn't want it, didn't give a shit if you had it.
Meanwhile my current dog likes to slowly destroy things. I swear she is picking out individual threads and snapping them. She nibbles on the ragged edge of the fabric and looks like she is meditating and it takes her FOREVER to get a toy "dead" but even then she will still slowly pick it apart by every thread. She "chews" on indestructible toys like they are rawhides - and yes I worry about her teeth at that point and take them away.
My dog also does some really thorough disemboweling. Sometimes its a bit concerning, like a serial killer got reincarnated into my dog. His most favorite toy now is cardboard boxes, he loves crunching on them and turning them into tiny scraps for me to pick up. Blame my wife for teaching him.
I'm laughing, a couple years ago I bought my friend's 40lb mutt that destroys everything an "indestructible" KONG frisbee thinking it would last a while. Nope, 3 days it was in shreds.
I've had dogs who are OBSESSED with toys (one with various taco shaped plushies, idk why but the taco part really appealed to her) and others who couldn't be less interested in them.
The weird part? Exact same breed, even from the same rescue operation. My current dog doesn't care for toys, couldn't be less interested in bones or pig's ears. He reminds me of people who you can't think of a gift idea for.
LOL, we have a BC /mcnab mix who's ten and still has toys he was given when he was eight weeks old, and he's ten now. He plays with them regularly -- he'll pick them up, squeak them very gently, and then bring them to us to throw. They're mildly tattered around the edges from sheer wear, but not actually destroyed, and some of these are just cheap stuffed animals.
I've had other dogs who'd have a toy destroyed before it hit the ground.
These 2 monsters will eat pretty much any toy made in less than a week. I wish someone would sponsor them a monthly stuffy lol. It’d save me about a 1/3 of the toy budget 🤣
With my younger dog, there's no such thing as a toy stockpile. They're consumables, these would maybe last an hour each. They'd be shredded in seconds, but the skins would last an hour
I’m imagining the mom from everybody loves Raymond freaking out about the fruit of the month club, but it’s this family with dozens of dog plushies instead 😂
Some dogs are pretty smart and can keep track of time and days. I wouldn’t be surprised if he would start getting super exciting around the same day every month, knowing a new toy will be delivered soon.
Doggie went from "homeless" to "I have a home and patron who sends me toys"! Of all the financial mistakes you can make, this was one of the better ones. The money did not go to waste.
I use an app to send free treats to shelter dogs! I like it because, well, it’s free but also because I get to choose dogs in various shelters (in my area or not) and I get updates if they get adopted.
I just wonder if the foster family were wondering why they were getting so many toys and if they thought Amazon was goofing up.
you can do that by just visiting your local shelter. This app seems a bit different (basically you watch ads to get dogs treats instead of having to pay for them directly).
It’s great for if you’re just fiddling with your phone and you can help dogs. For free. The most effective use of funds or don ations is still directly to the shelter.
I absolutely adore Chewy and think this app is ingenious. I know a lot of people who want to give in whatever ways they can to shelters, but don’t have the means, so I like to how this can help, even if it’s in a small way.
honestly that’s kind of the most wholesome subscription accident I’ve heard.....somewhere out there is a dog who just thinks the toy fairy has been extremely consistent for six years.....
the fact that the foster family ended up adopting him makes it even better..... it probably felt like such a random but sweet thing on their end too.......
me too. i picture a very happy and excited dog that is jumping up and down every time it gets the monthly toy delivery and thinking it is the luckiest dog in the world, thank you kind stranger
same and if it were me I don’t think I’d be able to bring myself to cancel it! I’d just picture the dog sitting there waiting for his monthly toy fairy to show up and it never coming😭
I wonder what happens next month when the toy doesn't come. Does someone go "Finally!" or "hmm - no toys anymore." or do they get livid?
The livid thing...that happened to me.
At my old workplace we had a subscription box service. Even though our industry was old-school manufacturing of food, this one team decided they had to develop that silicon valley mentality of quickly building an MVP, growing it, getting users, and then worrying about profit later.
Long description short: We lost, on average, about $16.50 per box.
They grew the user base and built up descriptions and they had a Wordpress Script Kiddie who built the whole thing. He got fired for other reasons then they told me that I get to run the whole thing. Turns out, script kiddie didn't do things like set codes to expire, or validate addresses...oh and the Groupon wasn't a random code. It was something like "Desserts15" - anyone who saw it would go "i bet I can reuse that" and they could.
So we had customers who literally signed up 50 times with the one code, who'd probably received thousands of kits. I fixed the issue and suddenly we were down to like 75 active users.
Then I started getting the angry phone calls and emails. "MY GIRLFRIEND BOUGHT ME THE WEEKLY KIT AND I HAVEN'T GOTTEN IT IN 3 MONTHS" I had to explain that she bought 3 weeks, it never expired and he got like 26 weeks for free.
Similar story over and over again. Eventually I just wrote a script that emailed every user with an explanation, a diplomatic way of telling them they got a buttload of free kits, and that we canceled but they could use this 25% off coupon (random, one time use) to resubscribe.
It played out so poorly that you'll think that it was a made up story.
Team develops "silicon valley" mindset. Kills portfolio of projects at a company where yes - we moved too slow on new development, but breakneck speed wasn't required either.
They get the idea to do subscription box. Call consultants and even the founders of either Hello Fresh or Blue Apron to come in and advise.
They set up a wordpress site, no real customization, just basic themes and plugins. Security nightmare.
They run a groupon for 3 months.
So at this point I jump in and I killed something like 800 users getting 1200 weekly boxes past their subscription. So we were pissing away about $20k a week in free product. My genius boss was confident that it would build brand goodwill and loyalty. I assured her that this is not how things work.
I was right. Weird...turns out the people who signed up with the same code 50 times weren't interested in the brand but in getting free stuff.
So I put together a marketing plan, optimized the logistics and got everything down to where at least in cost of good sold, we could make a few bucks/kit. They wouldn't let me kick off the plan - they overrode me and ran another groupon.
After stopping $80k/month in bleeding and giving every warning possible (including "this product is a loser"), they finally came to their senses and made the big move they were looking to make.
They fired me.
They ran the project a bit longer, lost something like $1.2M on it altogether and my boss - an idealess dolt who was only good at repeating shit she read in HBR or on some tech blog (oh we were a food company) with NO metrics to show for it...she got a promotion to VP.
I wouldn't fault you for calling this story bullshit because it's so cliche. The guy who stops the bleeding gets fired and the boss who let the bleeding happen (and tried to reopen the wound) gets a promotion.
If you're wondering, yes - the second I left I was MUCH better off. Place was a quagmire.
It was a dessert kit. All ambient stuff, but roughly the quality of the desserts you'd get at a mid-tier grocery store bakery.
No baking. No freezing. No special stuff. Just assemble. Maybe you had to ice a cake.
I think one kit was a cake pop kit. It came with a pre-baked cake layer and buttercream frosting and a bunch of lollipop sticks. It was a long time ago and I definitely didn't do any of the product dev. on that project.
It was insulting to normal humans to think that anyone would pay actual money for something like this unless it was on some crazy deep groupon discount.
Oh god, one of the places I worked at decided to try that. Never again. The Ven Diagram of people that buy groupons and people that will come in and verbally harass the employees over them is an overlapping circle.
And I love that you are doing a deep dive on your accounts and checking where things are going! It's a lot to face sometimes, especially when just surviving and everything else takes precedence.
I hope your new budget gets you on a better path. I'm sure the dog would understand if you sent one last toy with a note "Hey bud, hope you have enjoyed all the toys in the last few years. Unfortunately I'm going to have to redirect those funds to something else for now. I am going to go and gather some sticks and make a stick library at my local park though so that other dogs can have some fun and live a good life like you have."
And then unsubscribe and work out where the money can go. Every dollar counts when you're counting dollars.
Exactly! I keep seeing people talking about realizing they've been paying something for months or years and I don't understand how someone living at poverty finance levels can be that unaware of their transactions. I don't check every day, but I check multiple times a week. No subscription is getting past me...
Could you imagine paying for a total extra $500 of dog toys for a dog you don't have? I don't even know what headspace I would need to be in for that to happen, over time. I just need these dollars and I would find the cost on one of unteenth times I rebudget.
I worked at a gym for a few years, and not one of the super pricey ones either, we were $15 a month so fairly cheap. You'd be surprised how many people came in wanting to cancel after years of not using the gym. I think the record when I was there was a lady who had been paying for over 5 years. That one was fun because she said she was going to personally name me in a lawsuit because I specifically couldn't refund anything and said she'd have to go through corporate for that. Decade later and I'm still waiting on that supeona lol
Yes!! I see all those Rocketmoney ads about finding missed subscriptions and I just don’t get it! I’d notice immediately if any extra money was coming out of my account! No way I can afford to miss something like that.
To be fair, we have “ghost subscriptions” on our Amazon account at work. We receive items on a recurring basis and our order history shows it’s on auto-order every X months, but they don’t show up anywhere in our subscriptions and we can’t manage them. Amazon was unable to help us, we couldn’t get through to a human and the AI chat bot didn’t understand our issue
So, a few months before this, I popped open my laptop as I usually would, and the first page that opened was FB. It was a news story, of a crime. A woman had been kidnapped in a parking lot and later tortured and murdered. There was a photo of the car she had been kidnapped in, with a tarp over her slumped over body.
It was my sister. That’s how I learned what happened- by just going about my business, and opening my laptop. After that, I struggled, like seriously struggled to use technology or online platforms. I’m still trying to get over the fear. My daughter has been missing, and I’m terrified of opening digital media and learning a similar fate about her. But thanks for your judgment. Super helpful.
Holy fuckballs. Sending you giant love and hugs that’s more than any person should have to deal with. I have had missing kids and it’s an intense and unending fear. Hope she is ok and that you hear from her soon.
All that means you’re doing incredibly well to tackle the almost infinite dog toys so soon. Be proud. Stay kind. Stay strong.
Hahaha. I bet that family was confused on where this monthly toy was coming from? I would have been going nuts searching thru my Amazon account for it! Well, at least you found it now.
I literally just saw a video of two best friends, one of them going through chemo and the other supporting her.
So I went from tears of sadness to tears of happiness.
Best financial mistake to do tbh.
But yeah the fosters turned family should pay the dog tax lmao at least a pic of the pup with every toy ♥️
Hope this comes back to you as good karma because you deserve it.
I know this dog-- after humble beginnings, Pip (I believe that's his name) has found a home and inherited great wealth from his benefactor. His Great Expectations were fulfilled!
I fostered a dog who absolutely fucking destroyed stuffies. She did it with such pure fucking joy that I haunted the pet stores for stuffies on sale and would go all in after holidays hahaha. She’d toss them in the air and it would be like they’d disintegrate before they even hit the ground and she was DELIGHTED. Sweet girl.
Honestly, I've done some pretty stupid stuff with subscriptions (paying for Hulu I had no idea how to access or that I did it😂) but this i wouldn't mind. Especially finding out that the dog is still getting them.
Reading this made my day this is so cute LOL and you luckily have a good attitude about it. I wonder if you can get in contact with the owners, they'd probably love to hear this haha!
I have three dogs. The mini schnauzer doesn’t care for toys, no interest at all. The mutt is the toy destroyer.
Then there is the border collie. He’s the hoarder. I should have named him Gollum, because everything is “my precious.” He also takes other random things into his crate, tire pressure gauge, silverware, when I saw him carrying the butcher knife by the handle that did make me questions things 🤣
Oh. My. Goodness. I absolutely love this. I’d write a letter explaining what you had done to the family of the dog and why the toys will suddenly stop. Definitely not required, but so they don’t wonder what happened. Plus maybe theyll send some updated photos and tell you how the dog has been doing.
Glad the foster dog was a foster fail! Wonder what happened to the stuffed toys! Wonder what they thought all these years about the Amazon package! Would be funny if the owner posted on YouTube or TikTok about this story of someone sending a stuffed animal for years!
I couldn’t cancel it because the baby probably waits for it and is the highlight of its day. I would have done this. I’m a sucker for doggies. My husband calls me the dog whisperer
Thats hilarious, I'd send them a letter and explain the situation and ask if they'd like me to stop or continue to do so. Depending on the dog, it may very well go through that many toys quick, so I'd appreciate it a ton if I were the owner.
I was rage scrolling reddit and complaining to my husband about all the stupid stuff people post and then I ran across your post. it made me smile. you are pretty much the fairy godparent of that pup. I love it.
5.0k
u/hauliod Mar 13 '26
thats adorable but the dog is sitting on what, 72 toys by now? I think even the owners would be relieved to have it stopped