Toilet Dog

Along with the scary memories of my childhood, I have some very fond memories of my adult years with my mom. My mom was a giver. If she loved you, she would do anything for you. She had a great deal of trouble relating to people in a relaxed fashion. I realized that she had some serious self esteem issues. Any emotional damage I may have suffered at her hands was not done intentionally. She was only trying to survive as best she could..like all of us. Anyhow, one of her most wonderful qualities was the giving. She was a terrific baker, and would fatten us all up with delicious cheese cakes and other goodies. She would also fall for every new gimmick that was advertised, many of which were junk that never worked. I remember her buying these travel toothbrushes for everyone. They were these plastic tubes with a toothbrush on the end. You could never squeeze any paste into the tube so they were essentially useless. We all had to tell her that we loved them. This was required with all of her gifts. If you said something didn't work she would take it personally and feel that it was somehow your fault. The path of least resistance was to say it was the best gift you had ever seen. The downside is that she would keep buying more of the same things. Of course, looking back, I wish I had kept every useless gift she ever gave me. At some point she became obsessed with wristwatches. They usually fell apart within the first month (obviously because we were wearing them wrong). I still have a few non-working watches sitting around my house. I also have talking salt and pepper shakers that she had given me. The pepper shaker will often sneeze as you walk by the cabinet. My mom loved animals, so she liked to buy presents for our pets. She had given me two of these toilet dogs for my dog, Sophie. Sophie chewed the ears off of the other toilet dog, but this one remains intact. I smile every time I look at it. I love the connection. I would do anything to have her here to hand me another non-working gift. They worked for me!!