The baby has been revived. This thing has gone through a lot. It used to be a cheezy toy my mother got me many years ago (5ish years), and it hung from an elastic band, that you could use to toss it out, let it snap back at you, and make a "BOING!" noise. Very cute and useless. 

I always hung it on doors, and Dante got into the habit of sniffing it as we'd leave our New York apartment. Eventually the band snapped and the baby made a new home on the floor of my apartment. 

Where does the name "baby" come from? Dante got into the habit of sniffing it, picking it up and carrying it around. If Corbett or I would toss it, and it made its signature sound, Dante would run to it, pick it up, bring it to the bed and whimper. It was his baby, and he didn't like it getting hurt. 

As time went on, Dante got out of really caring for his baby. He became a pissed off parent, whose child had just gone too far. (What did the baby do? I never will know.) He ripped it open, and pulled out all of the stuffing. Shortly after moving to the 'burg, we had to throw out the sound maker, to save the father's life (he would have tried to chew it up and probably would choke on it), and eventually we got tired of refilling the stuffing, and Dante had to live with carrying around the skin of the baby. (Give up the skin? Hell no.)

Well, Corbett took the hedgehog (another toy that Dante does not care for. In fact, every other toy he has is a complete waste to him.), and wrapped the baby skin around it, grafting a new body beneath the only the toy Dante will ever love. And a new life has appeared in my formerly lifeless pup. He's been playing with it for the last hour. He's a puppy again!