Harrison and his cat

We've had a long standing rule for dogs in our house, no soft animals. Why such a seemingly cruel rule? It's simple. Our children have many soft animals that have been carried away and/or destroyed by dogs who thought they were fair game. As a result we have trained our dogs not to touch those toys, and we've been fairly successful with this tact. Until my sister dog sat for us that is. Her dog is allowed to have many loveys and so they shared one with Harrison which he was allowed to bring home. Needless to say I was apprehensive about what this would teach him. Would I have to start guarding the girls toys again? Were we going to have to take away his toy, and break him of the habit? This was a little over a month ago.

Flash forward to today. As it turns out, his cat has become his favorite toy. We have not seen him without his beloved cat since he brought it home. One day it was so disgusting I had to wash it. He paced by the washing machine, and then the dryer just as a toddler would waiting for it to come out. My fears that it would create a stuffed animal canine thief out of him? Totally unfounded. He seems quite happy with his toy, and hasn't touched the girls things. I think it reminds him of his surrogate Mom and Dad, Linda and Sean. He totally wants to live with them. Can you blame him?