The Good Word of Gorilla

This is my sweet, darling dog Nikki and her favorite toy, Mr. Gorilla. I promise to have more (better!) pictures of Nikki in a future post, but these will have to do for now.

Mr. Gorilla looks a little worse for wear these days, but that's only because he's been well-loved, and, admittedly, it must be a little rough being an 80-pound dog's favorite toy. He travels clutched in Nikki's mouth, and she uses him to poke at things. She'll poke at our knees when we're cooking. She'll tease us, "Take the Gorilla. Take the Gorilla. TAKE THE GORILLA. No, you can't have Gorilla." And, from the looks of it, she has realized that while it's risky to poke George with her nose, she can poke him with Mr. Gorilla with less risk of contact and injury when she gets smacked. And she almost always does get smacked . . . by George, of course, never by me. Everyone knows who Mommy loves best.

Steve has observed that the Gorilla-aided poking looks suspiciously like proselytizing.

So . . . have you heard the Good Word of Gorilla?