We found a yellow ball. Or really, our neighbor's dog found a ball and left it outside their door. Probably because the dog's owners wouldn't let it in the house. The streets are twice as filthy with snow melt revealing everything you never wanted to see, so not bringing that ball in is smart. 

I'm not so smart. The ball showed up in the lobby and from there it showed up in Ginger's mouth. She started prancing down the street with it and when it came time to come in I let her carry it upstairs. During that climb my brain softened and before I came to that ball was in the house. 

I had to wash it, but soap would make it taste bad. Bad is relative, given everything but a floating cadaver was stuck to it, but out of respect to it's dirty street patina I scrubbed it under plain water then boiled my hands. It's now one of her favorite things, along with her alligator, elephant and ferret.

The ferret, by Fluff & Tuff, was Opal's sleep mate and Ginger has adopted it for the same. Both dogs could de-stuff a stuffy in seconds, which is what happened with every stuffed animal we tried. The sturdy plush toys were stiff or scratchy, but this ferret looked extremely well made and was soft on my cheek. She loved it so I bought their elephant online and when it came in the mail Ginger became inseparable with it.

Fluff & Tuff had sent a fuzzy ball as an extra and I sent them pictures of Ginger gnawing away on the elephant. They posted her pictures to Facebook and got so many hits they sent us an alligator as a thank you. She's now busy working the tail off this one, or trying to, when she isn't conking out next to it.