“She carries them everywhere” ?️
Meet Waffle Sizzli — a black pit bull who loves plush toys more than anything in the world.
“She carries them everywhere,” Christie Peters, director of Richmond Animal Care and Control (RACC), told The Dodo.
Waffle was picked up by RACC as a stray in November 2022, and by January 2023, she was the shelter’s longest resident. The sweet pup got tons of love and cuddles from RACC’s staff as she waited for a forever home, but her biggest source of comfort was her stuffed toy collection.
Waffle was first introduced to stuffies after being brought into Peters’ office, where there were a few plush toys waiting for her.
“She loved them,” Peters said.
The pup then went to a neighboring office and found two more plushies: a frog and a bird.
“She walked down the hallway to the other office and took stuffies from there,” Peters said. “She brought them back to my room so she could have more.”
Waffle brought her prized stuffie collection to her bed, where she kept a close eye on them. Anytime she’d leave her bed, the playful pup would bring at least one toy with her.
“She takes them outside with her while she goes to the bathroom, and then she brings them back in,” Peters said.
You can watch Waffle carry around her toys here:
Waffle loved every stuffed toy she came across, but she definitely had her favorites.
“Her absolute favorite was a red plush bone,” Peter said. “The runner-up was the frog, but his legs dangle, and sometimes she’d trip on them. The third in the lineup was the bird — she carried that one around a bunch.”
Waffle Sizzli wasn’t interested in interacting with any of the other dogs at the shelter, but she was happy to show off her toy collection whenever possible.
“She would walk past the other dogs in their cages with her stuffies,” Peters said. “She was very proud of them.”
And whenever a staff member tried to initiate a game of tug-of-war or fetch with the toys, they were instantly turned down.
“She would bring them to us, but she didn’t want us to take them,” Peters said. “She just wanted us to admire her with her stuffies, which we did. It was really the Waffle Sizzli show every day, and we were just the participants.”
You can watch Waffle bring her toys to RACC staff here:
After three months at the shelter, Waffle Sizzli finally received an adoption application. A woman who’d recently lost her senior dog saw RACC’s videos of Waffle with her toys, and she instantly fell in love.
Days later, Waffle Sizzli was officially adopted. Before she left, Waffle’s friends at RACC sent her home with a few special gifts.
“We sent her home with everything that she loved,” Peters said. “Now I get pictures of her with her stuffies in her new house.”
The staff at RACC are sad to not have their toy-loving buddy walking around the shelter anymore, but they’re so happy that Waffle is enjoying her new life in a loving home, all while having her favorite plushies by her side.
“We love her so much,” Peters said, “She’s just the funniest, cutest, sweetest little toy-carrying dog ever.”