The Tale of the Buster Cube

Gather 'round while I tell a tale of mystery and the unexplained...

The Buster Cube, by Our Pets, was the first food-dispensing toy I ever bought for Brisbane. It was nearly ten years ago, maybe longer. It's possible that I bought the first one for Oakley, my first dog. Back then, the Buster Cube was a lot more cube-like, the current model has very rounded edges. Those things are pretty big, and made from hard plastic. It was a loud toy, but back then I still lived with my parents, and their house has wall-to-wall carpet in almost every room. The Buster Cube served its purpose, it held more than a cup of kibble and kept Brisbane entertained as he bashed it into walls. The rotating center column never functioned in either of my Cubes, it always jammed on the first turn and could never be rotated or adjusted. At any rate, it was a neat toy. Our first one was red.

One day I went looking for the Cube in order to fill it up, and couldn't find it anywhere. Brisbane often shoved it under the furniture, and Oakley occasionally rolled it into her lair beneath the bed. After several weeks of searching intermittently, I broke down and replaced with a large Blue Buster Cube. This one also disappeared eventually, but by then I had acquired the TreatStik and a few other puzzle toys, so finding the Cube became less urgent. I always assumed it was under the bed or something, and that I would find it when I eventually moved out and emptied my room.

I have since gotten married, moved out, and emptied my old room. My parents have remodeled and redecorated, they have removed, rearranged, or replaced every single piece of furniture in the house over the last ten years. The Buster Cubes have never been found.

Where did they go? They were too large for Brisbane to pick up and carry, and much too big and obvious to have gotten mixed up in a pile of laundry or anything else we had around the house. They both vanished during the middle of the day when everyone in the house was at school or at work. While it's possible that one of my parents or siblings got fed up with the rattling noise and tossed the Cubes, it's much more likely that they would have complained about it first. None of Brisbane's noisier or more obnoxious toys vanished while I lived there. Just the Cubes.

Briz has much better puzzle toys now, but I haven't replaced the Buster Cube because it just feels too weird. What if it disappears again?