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The one ongoing issue between the dogs and Noah (who now is 9 months old) has been Greta stealing his stuffed animals and tearing them apart. On several occasions I have found Greta in a corner of the house with a stuffed animal, ripping it to shreds. One time she wouldn't drop it and I chased her around the house for several minutes. I finally had to bribe her with a treat to get it away from her.

Last week, I found her with Mickey Mouse. Noah's favorite. I think Greta understood my tone of voice when I yelled at her, because she didn't put up a fight to keep Mickey.

But it never occurred to me that at some point, Noah would go after the dogs' toys. Last night, we were enjoying a quiet evening. Noah was up way past his bedtime, but was in a good mood. He was sitting in the living room floor playing with the laces of my running shoes. And Cassie settled down not far from him with the chew toy she got for Christmas.

When Noah got tired of playing with the laces, he started crawling toward Cassie. I watched both of them carefully. I wasn't sure if Noah wanted Cassie or the toy. And I wasn't sure what Cassie might do if Noah got too close while she was intent on chewing the toy.

When he got close to her, I picked him up and turned him in a different direction. He looked up at me, smiled, and turned back toward Cassie. At that point, Cassie picked up her toy, and moved a few inches away from him. I picked him up and moved him again. He promptly turned and headed back toward Cassie. I then thought to myself, “Let’s just see what happens.”

Noah crawled closer and closer to Cassie. Then reached out his hand. She continued chewing. And then his hand got so close to her that it looked like he was going to snatch the toy right out of her mouth.

I then snatched him up and pulled him into my lap. Turns out I didn’t want to see what would happen.