Meet Waffle Sizzli – a black pit bull who loves soft 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 oldest resident. The beautiful canine got loads of love and cuddles from RACC’s staff as she waited for a forever home, but her largest source of comfort was her stuffed toy collection.
Waffle was initially introduced to stuffies after being brought into Peters’ office, where there were a few plush toys waiting for her.
“She loved them,” Peters added.
The pup then walked to a neighboring office and found two additional plushies: a frog and a bird.
“She walked down the corridor to the other office and collected stuffies from there,” Peters claimed. “She brought them back to my room so she could have more.”
Waffle brought her precious stuffie collection to her bed, where she kept a watchful check on them. Anytime she’d leave her bed, the energetic pooch would bring at least one toy with her.
“She takes them outside with her when she goes to the restroom, and then she brings them back in,” Peters added.
Waffle loved every stuffed toy she came across, but she clearly had her favorites.
“Her ultimate favorite was a red plush bone,” Peter recalled. “The runner-up was the frog, but his legs droop, 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 connecting with any of the other dogs at the shelter, but she was happy to show off her toy collection whenever possible.
“She would wander by the other dogs in their cages with her stuffies,” Peters recalled. “She was really proud of them.”
And anytime a staff member sought to instigate a game of tug-of-war or retrieve with the toys, they were promptly turned down.
“She would bring them to us, but she didn’t want us to take them,” Peters recalled. “She just wanted us to admire her with her stuffies, which we did. That was essentially the Waffle Sizzli show every day, and we were just the participants.”
After three months at the shelter, Waffle Sizzli finally received an adoption application. A woman who’d recently lost her senior dog viewed RACC’s videos of Waffle with her toys, and she quickly fell in love.
Days afterwards, Waffle Sizzli was officially adopted. When she went, Waffle’s pals at RACC sent her home with a few special gifts.
“We sent her home with everything that she loved,” Peters added. “Now I get images of her with her stuffies in her new house.”
The staff at RACC are sad to not have their toy-loving buddy strolling 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 simply the funniest, prettiest, sweetest little toy-carrying dog ever.”
