The Glass Pumpkin Dilemma

As anyone who has visited my home in September and October knows, I am a Halloween fan.  Fan may be putting it to mildly. I have been collecting Halloween decorations for years.  I have collected quite an array of glass pumpkins, figurines, art pieces and dolls.  And each year on my birthday I pull out all the collections and decorate so I can enjoy the collection for the two months a year it is on display.  It covers every square inch of furniture from dolls festooning the chairs to glass pumpkins on the coffee table.

This year is different.  And the difference is Bizz and his incredible fondness for leaping upon every piece of furniture I own - including the dining room table and the bookcases.  I have literally found Bizz perched on almost every piece of furniture that I have.  And this combined with his fondness for all things stuffed has me a bit worried about the safety of my collections and more importantly Bizz.

Of course this all came to mind yesterday when we visited Pet Smart to pick up his food supply for the week. I love taking Bizz to the pet stores because everyone makes a fuss and he just loves sniffing everything.  We finished in the food aisle(yippee a sale) and turned a corner to discover the Halloween aisle.  There it all was in glorious profusion.  Pet squeaky toys in the shapes of bats, pumpkins, rats (ick) and witches - both stuffed and rubber filled one section.  And then there were the costumes.   A wide array of costumes including one whole section by Disney and another by Martha Stewart met my eyes.  My first challenge was what to pick.  Would Bizz wear a witch hat with fake black hair?  Could I strap him into a Nemo costume?  Would I want to?  Then I saw it - a Tigger costume.  Bizz is a very bouncy little dog and a Tigger costume seemed perfect.  But alas and alack - they only had size XS and XXL.  I'm not sure what dog size he actually is but I'm pretty sure he's neither of those.

I was further hampered in my pursuit by the location of the costumes. They were next to the Guinea Pig, Rat and Bird adoption station.  Once Bizz got a whiff of those I knew we were doomed.  His lunging made looking at costumes difficult and the actual trying on of items virtually impossible.  It's very hard to shop when from the corner of your eye you can see rodents cowering and you hear birds twittering with desperation.

Yes, he thwarted me.  Perhaps he knew what I was plotting and didn't want to spend all day October 31st dressed up like a Disney Tigger.  Maybe he didn't think he'd look darling in a little witch hat. And worst of all, maybe he knew that the chances were any time someone came to the house he'd be put into the costume and gushed over.  And of course there would pictures galore. 

However there are still 70 days until Halloween and I don't give up easily. 

He did get a toy that he did like on the trip. A soft squishy pumpkin that squeeks quite loudly.  This may be the start of a new collection.