Maggie and Her Sprong

My female Morkie, Maggie, will be 10 months old on January 10th. We are in full-fledged puppy mode. I find kleenex shredded, stuffed toys eviscerated, and electronics chewed to bits. (She’s especially partial to headphones. Maggie has destroyed 3 sets of earbuds and 1 expensive over-the-ear noise cancelling pair. She wasn’t so cute that day.)

There’s so much energy inside that tiny, furry body … she practically vibrates. Jack-Jack will wrestle and play with Maggie, but he can only take so much; she outweighs him now by 2lbs, fully one third of his body weight!

Thankfully, we’ve discovered that within our wee package of Yorkie swirled with Maltese lies the heart of a Labrador Retriever. As long as we’re willing to throw – and the further, the better – Maggie will hop, leap, jump, and sprint to fetch her blue Sprong!

Morkies have extremely tiny mouths, so the idea of playing fetch becomes humorous. Got a ping-pong ball? That’s almost too big. But we hit paydirt with this toy called a Sprong.

It’s made of soft foam rubber covered with a velvety flocking. It bounces and floats in water.

What makes the Sprong ideal for my small-mouthed Maggie is the funky shape. The hexagonal ball has these nubs on each corner that are the perfect size for her to bite down on. And since the foam rubber is so light, she has no problem carrying it back to me.

Heck, I’ve seen her throw this thing by tossing her head – when she wants to play but can’t find a willing partner, Maggie will take a toy (or a treat, or a bit of dry food) and throw it … pounce on it … bat at it with her paws … pick it up in her mouth and toss it again … dive at it and roll onto her back, rolling back and forth over it … and repeat the whole process until she (a) gets someone to play with her, (b) gets tired, or (c) eats the treat or dry food.

Maggie easily has triple the energy and enthusiasm of Jack-Jack. Thank goodness we’ve found an outlet to burn some of it off! Now that we’re playing fetch twice a day in the backyard, maybe our small electronics will be safe…

…maybe.