Thursday, July 11, 2013

Kate's Bouncy, Spiky Ball Shootout: #Petco vs. #Target

I like playing catch.  I can leap high and grab just about any flying object with my mouth.  If I don't catch something, I'm playing fetch.  On purpose.

Spiky, bouncy, floaty (if only I had a pool!) balls are among my favorite toys.  I've played with several spiky balls over the past 15+ dog years, or 2+ regular years:  A pink one, a purple one, an orange one, a red one, a blue one, and a green one.

I can chew with the best of 'em, which means that round balls will become flat things eventually.  Flat balls are still good to catch, but they are no longer fun to play with when they start to break apart.

The majority of the spiky balls came from Petco:  The pink one, the purple one, the orange one, and the green one.  The pink and purple balls are no longer with us (R.I.P.), but they lasted for months of fun.  The orange ball is somewhat flat, but still bouncing a bit after about a year and a half!  The green one is the newest one -- I received it sometime in May -- and it's starting to get a bit flat.  I still prefer playing catch with the orange ball most of the time.

Two of the spiky balls were purchased from Target:  The red one and the blue one.  I received the red one around Valentine's Day, earlier this year.  It lasted a few weeks before a chunk broke off of it.  Tragically, its life was cut short!

I received the blue one on Easter --

Speaking of Easter, you should check out this cartoon about the Easter Bunny, and how his dog disciple betrayed him in the Judas Iscariot sort of way, explaining why dogs can't (or shouldn't, depending on weight) eat chocolate.  It's probably offensive to extremely devout Christians, or at least the ones who don't respond well to satire.  It should really be offensive to dog-kind, but it isn't.  Okay, maybe only the humorless ones.  But I digress.

The blue Easter ball lasted a couple of days, and it was game over.  It was a sad day.  At least I had my orange ball, as well as my other toys, to console me.  As mentioned earlier, I received a green one in May, and it is currently with me to this day.

This might not be true of all spiky balls from Petco and Target, but in my professional opinion, Petco's spiky balls last longer than Target's.  Both stores sell these balls for about $5 each, and there's some likelihood that they're made in a similar, if not the same, factory in China (or thereabouts), but if you're in the market for a bouncy, spiky ball, go to Petco.

It's where I'd go.

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