FurReal Pets

Around Christmas of 2005, I was seeing all sorts of FurReal Friends in the stores. They had dogs, cats, kittens, puppies. We had bought my daughter an used animatronic cat that she really liked, but it was really beaten up and soon, he was malfunctioning. Seeing that the FurReal pets were only $12.99, I felt the price was right for a toy that could interact with my daughter. I was also hoping to use the toy as a "starter" pet for her, so that she could learn how to properly play with a real animal. We'd had some issues with her wanting to be a little too rough with real dogs.

I ended up buying the FurReal Friends Newborn Puppy (Brown and Tan). Unfortunately, most of the animals don't have real names and some, including the puppy I bought, don't tell you want kind of breed the dog is supposed to be. The puppy I purchased looks a bit like a brown and tan bulldog. The newborn puppy acts a lot like a newborn puppy. It sleeps a lot, makes whimpering noises if you don't play with it, and to wake it up you need to pet it. Being a robotic puppy, it doesn't feel like a real puppy. It's easy to feel the plastic battery box under his stomach. He is interactive, but not as much as I was hoping for. Despite his lack of actions, my daughter really did like him and learned how to "pet nice". Since learning on him, she's been much better with real animals, so I feel it did serve the purpose I bought it for.