Old huck, new huck, yellow huck, blue huck

Elanor has several toys made of natural rubber from West Paw Designs.  She loves them; she fetches them and chews on them.  Joey and I are fond of them because, despite the fact that Elanor is quite a strong chewer, it takes her a long time to even put a dent in them.  One of her toys is a oddly shaped ball called a ‘huck’.  We sometimes play outside, and the huck was left outside at some point.  It got quite gross.  Sunday after church Joey decided to clean up the huck.  He washed it, but it still had some nasty black stuff on it.  He decided to boil it, rather than use a harsh chemical, since Elanor would be chewing on the toy once the cleaning was finished.

Joey and I sat down and talked for awhile.  Suddenly Joey jumped up and ran out of the room.  A very strange smell drifted across the house.  The water that the huck was being boiled in had boiled completely away!  The huck had melted to the bottom of the pan.  The whole house was filled with smoke.

Joey and I went around opening windows and turning on fans.  The smoke was very thick and completely obscured the visibility across the living room.  Then we took Elanor and went outside until the smoke had cleared some.  Joey pulled the huck out of the pan.  It was all melted and crazy, as you can see in the photos.  I started thinking that we would need to order a new huck for Elanor, but then I remembered that I had ordered an extra huck the last time I placed an order with West Paw Designs.  I pulled it out, and Elanor was so excited about her new toy!

The house still smells like melted candle wax, but mostly things have returned to normal.