Anyone for tennis?

So our little dog, Nipper, still loves to destroy tennis balls. I mean, annihilate them. We usually get him the Tourna Pressureless Tennis Balls, which are safe for dogs, but his favorite are the Kongs, because they squeak like a dying rat. So much fun.

Often he leaves nothing behind but some bright fuzz and little bits of rubber. But sometimes he can be very neat with the destruction.

Back in the 1990s, when I first worked in children's books, kids were being taught that they could save the earth by recycling, and the best way they could do that was to recycle garbage into arts and crafts projects... projects that they or their parents would turn back into garbage down the line anyway. We did a lot of those books. So I wondered, what could be done with this dead, not-totally-destroyed tennis ball?

First I came up with Deviled Tennis Ball, which is really more of a bad art project than anything else.

My next thought was Tennis Igloos, based on Linus Van Pelt's former struggle to remember to bring eggshells in for the igloo project that his beloved teacher, Miss Othmar, had assigned.

Try as he might, Linus could never remember those eggshells, and she became quite sad. She actually got so frustrated that she quit teaching to get married, although she returned to the strip later.

But I have no teacher, and no interest in doing faux Inuit tableaux.

Ultimately I thought of our pal Stiiv, and that inspired me to make some art in his honor.

Happy Friday, Stiiverino!

Okay, it's trash day, so out this goes.