Valiant Service

Barley, a dog, looks up from a toy that was, at one time, a lobster, before being whittled down by a process of damage and repair over many years.

It’s wild to me that Barley has stuffed toys with literal years under their belt, the survivors of many tours of duty being enthusiastically thrashed by some serious chompers. Quite a few of these long-timers barely resemble their original forms, instead looking the way you might imagine a plushie would look if you could put one in a rock tumbler to smooth out its features. As always, the secret to such long and productive life is (a) making sure the toy remains understuffed, and (b) performing any needed repairs with short lengths of upholstery thread (whose durability relative to the thread used by garment makers continues to blow my mind).