When we took a Chorkie pup in for rehoming earlier this year we quickly realised that we were going to have to stock up on doggie related bits and pieces; he arrived at our house with nothing more than a collar and poor excuse for a lead, but as we didn't know how long he'd be lodging with us I didn't particularly want to spend a fortune on him as he was such a cute little pooch that I knew once he reached his forever home his owners would want to buy their own personal things for him. After he darted into the garden half a dozen times with our sons baby toys in his mouth (well actually he was such a small dog that he had to sort of drag most of them in short bursts) we decided to take a trip to Pets At Home to see what we could pick up to keep him entertained.

Now, despite having a life-long penchant for pigs I would definitely not have chosen this ugly thing if it was up to me. The Oinking Latex Pig was Mark's choice, I wanted to buy a much prettier squeaking sunflower, but as he was paying he had to get his own way - especially as I was still in the Chorkie House myself for taking a dog on without consulting him first.

The Latex Pig is exactly as you can see in the piccie Dooyoo have up; slightly demonic looking with such an angry face that I can't understand how or why the manufacturers made him look like this. He's soft and squishy in texture, to the point where I thought Rascal would sink his tiny razor teeth into the material straight away and we'd be left with a burst pig skin for our effort. Not so, the pig proved to be amazingly robust and even though Rascal no longer lives with us I know he still has the pig as the lady who gave him the loving home he so desperately deserved (he wasn't looked after well, if at all, by his previous owner) mentioned it when she texted last week to let me know how he was. A Chorkie is a cross breed dog with one parent being a Yorkshire Terrier and the other being a Chihuahua, the terrier in Rascal came out in the fact that when he was in the right frame of mind he'd grip his toys in his mouth and shake them to within an inch of their lives - lesser toys would begin to rip where he was holding them in his teeth and eventually be shaken in half as he raced around the garden whipping his neck back and forwards.

The Latex Pig didn't even have so much as a tooth mark in it, let alone any rips or tears - extremely impressive in my opinion considering the toy feels very flimsy. The 'oinking' aspect of the toy is horrible, it works a treat but remains the singularly most revolting sound I've ever heard. When you press the pig (or if your dog bites in the right place) you'll be treated to a loud and very grating 'GRUNT' noise - there's nothing sweet or cute about this 'oink' (as you might guess from the appearance of the pig), in fact it turns my stomach a little bit as it sounds a bit like the kind of huge dirty burp my old uncle used to do! Revolting! The latex also trembles slightly as the grunt works its way out of the pigs mouth... Eugh...

Despite my distaste for the Oinking Pig, Rascal loved it from the moment I pulled it out of the Pets at Home carrier bag and this immediately became his 'favourite toy'. It's pretty big at around six or seven inches long with a proportional bulk, but it's light and easy for even the smallest dog to carry around. Rascal used to love taking his into the garden and lying in the sun while he gnawed at one of the legs - although it would make him jump sometimes if he bit in the wrong (or right, depending on your viewpoint) place and get a face full of 'oink'! Because of the size it was very rare for the pig to become misplaced, unlike his rope which he'd hide underneath the row of trees in the garden and because it was such a flat toy it would remain missing until one of us happened to be mooching in that area for whatever reason.

I paid around a fiver for this ugly pig and despite the fact that I'm not keen on the thing I think it was value for money considering Rascal loved it so much.