Well, for those of you who have lost a dog, my heartfelt condolences. I recently lost my JRT to rodent poison and can deeply sympathize with you.

re: rawhides and nylabones -- I only give mine compressed rawhides. They are steamed and then pressed into shapes and the dogs cannot get large chunks softened up to choke on. Provides about 24 hours of chewing pleasure for some pretty busy chewers. I don't use Nylabones (this is a personal preference) because they are made of nylon. The Velvets don't last worth a hang here. They get gobbled up almost as quickly as biscuits. I also don't use knuckle bones as my dogs chew them up quickly and then poop white from whatever they treat them with. I think it would be good to get a warning on almost all the chew toys that they should not be given daily and the dog should be monitored during chewing time. I love to give pig ears, but have heard of a dog that got a sliver of one caught in its throat, so caution there, too.

Lily: Congratulations on your new puppies. They will never fill the hole that Nook Nook's death left, but will help build a border of love around it so it doesn't hurt as much. When my Trev died, her "sister" Shiloh was sleeping in my room and I heard her play barking in her dreams like she did with Trev. It was odd, but really made me think that she knew what it was all about.

One chewtoy we use around our house on occasion is what we call "Denim Doggie Delights". I took cut off legs of denim jeans and tied a knot in them and the dogs would chew them, tug on them and shake them like they were going to "kill" them. They were pretty durable and washable and when they got to be too much "blue spagetti" easily tossed and very cheap to obtain since I had three kids that would wear holes in the knees of their jeans and I would just cut them off. Just a thought.