PHILADELPHIA — Brody was the best dog in the world. Ask his family.
“He was just a beautiful soul,” said Abby Michaels, his owner and pet mom.
A once-neglected puggle that the schoolteacher, her husband and son found through an ad on Craigslist, Brody became an integral part of their family for over 16 years. When he died last June, he left behind “a big hole” in their hearts and a ton of beloved toys.
But then Michaels, 60, saw a post on Facebook: Someone was collecting old pet toys — squeaker-less, stuffing missing, chewed up, it didn’t matter — making them like new, and giving them to shelter dogs and cats.
Brody would have liked that, Michaels thought. So she gathered a bunch of his old playthings and dropped them off. And she actually felt a bit better.
“It’s a good way to help you heal your heart,” she said, “and it’s a good way to give to those in need, whether it’s a dog or a person.”
Brody’s toys became part of the Ruff Toy Project, started by Northeast Philadelphia animal lover Caitlin Parylak.
“I’m a big repurpose kind of person,” said Parylak, 25. “When I first had my foster dogs a couple years ago, they would go through toys like no one’s business. I figured it was a good way to repurpose. Plus it’s a win-win for everybody. People feel good when they get to donate their toys.”
In the last few months, Parylak, was home more because of a work-related injury at her city job. She posted a call for unwanted, in-need-of-repair pet toys on a Fishtown Facebook page, which soon spread across the city. Parylak found herself making 15 pick-ups stops in a run, and people like Abby Michaels started dropping off bags outside her house.
“It was awesome.”
Before long, Parylak had her own Island of Lost (Pet) Toys in her Academy Gardens home. Using scraps of old clothes, patches of new fabric, and squeakers bought on Amazon, hers is a one-woman Santa’s workshop that’s rehabbed about 300 toys so far with lots more waiting in the wings.
Now and then, having all those toys around is just too tempting for her own dogs, Terry and Polar, two rescue pit bulls.
“Sometimes when I’m sorting through them, Polar, my younger one, will come and try to sneak one. I usually don’t let them take them. But if there’s one they’re super interested in, I’ll usually go one for one. I’ll go to the store and replace it.”
Parylak will hear from donors that the toys they are giving away belonged to a beloved pet who has died. Her own cat Pippin passed away two years ago, so she knows what that’s like.
“Depending on how bad shape the toy are in, I’ll try to save a little piece of fabric and then make them their own little keepsake to kind of give back to them,” Parylak said.
So far, she’s given manyof the reapaired toys to ACCT-Philly.
“Because they’re the (city’s) only open-intake shelter, I feel a lot of their budget has to get prioritized for necessities, so they don’t really have the money for toys,” Parylak said. “So I try to go to them first.”
She also donates to the Pennsylvania SPCA. And she’s worked on a couple of bags of toys for the felines at a cat cafe on Girard Avenue.
But Parylak is sort of a Secret Santa. She said she usually just puts her completed toys in the shelters’ donation bins or gives them to friends to drop off.
“I’m not a limelight person,” she said.
Gillian Kocher, PSPCA spokesperson, said Parylak has been a volunteer with their agency since 2019, often taking dogs to events like a recent Philadelphia Union soccer game. But, she said, “No one had any idea about toys coming from Caitlin.”
But they are appreciated.
“Toys are vital tools in keeping our shelter residents enriched while they wait for their forever families,” Kocher said. “We so often think about dogs being walked and ensuring they have enough physical exercise, which is so very important. But, we can’t forget their brains. They need exercise too.”
Pet owners who have contributed to the Ruff Toy Project say they’ve been grateful for the opportunity to help animals in need.
“I gave her a whole bag full,” said Amanda Brickner, 38. She and her boyfriend Kyle Jackson, 36, are both nurses and live in Center City with their two Goldendoodles, Rollie and Gaia. “I have my dogs like they’re spoiled. They get a BarkBox delivered every month, each of them. So we have plenty of toys. I told her I’ll reach out with more of them as they go.”
Abby Michaels now keeps what she calls her “shrine” to Brody in the family’s Northeast Philadelphia home. Some of the puggle’s favorite toys are there, as well as other Brody keepsakes.
“I kept his favorite ball and his favorite bone, and I still can’t get rid of his jacket. But everything else, I just felt like she was doing such a great service,” Michaels said. “And I think it was helping me through the grieving process to know that some cat or dog was going to be able to play with some of his toys.”
