My daughter recently had a birthday, and received a slew of four-year-old girl gifts. Amongst the favorites was the Kennel Care Barbie set given to her by a friend with two young daughters and two dogs. Clearly, this family knew what to buy an animal loving four year old!

The Out of Package Experience
Kennel care Barbie comes in casual clothes. Her long blonde tresses are caught up in a casual pony tail, and she's wearing a teeshirt that says Puppy Love, capri pants and slides that I wouldn't be caught dead in. On the other hand, if I had that figure, maybe I'd go crazy and buy the whole outfit. Okay, back to the doll... Unlike most of the Barbies we have, this one actually comes with accessories that not only are interesting, but they actually do something.

The kennel care giftset includes a kitten, two puppies, a pet basket, two purse-shaped dog food bags, a brush (barbie sized), three pet bowls, and toys for the animals. The toys include a mouse for the kitty and a teddy bear for the puppies, a rattle and three teeny little bottles.

I will digress here slightly and say that the folks that buy Barbies as collector items have made the world a rougher place for the rest of us. Those of us who want to open up the gift set and pull out the pieces for our children to play with do not care if Barbie's hair gets mussed in the package, or if one or more of the little pieces shifts slightly in the packaging. Nonetheless, I have seen numerous boards posting about how packaging issues such as "hair out of place" in a sealed Barbie package significantly affect the collector's value. So, as a result, Kennel Care Barbie with her 16 accessories took no less than 15 minutes to open completely, unwinding metal ties, untaping accessories, detaching pieces, etc. I'll stop complaining here other than to say it's actually a deterrent (in my opinion) to purchasing knowing that a typical Barbie doll takes longer to open than she is played with in this household.

What Kennel Care Barbie Does
This is actually a cute set, and one my daughter loves. Barbie has a magnet in the palm of one hand, and this allows her to "hold" the animals or pet food bags. Cute idea, actually, although my daughter hasn't quite figured out that it's only one hand and occasionally tries to use the wrong hand. Nonetheless it's a nifty trick and a huge improvement on trying to somehow make them mechanically fit together.

Secondly, the animals have teeny holes in their mouths that let them "drink" the little bottles, or hold the toy mouse in the cat's mouth. This is cute the first time around, although I noticed my daughter isn't trying to do this regularly. Nonetheless, again, at least the Barbie accessories do something.

Finally, there is the basket. This is by far the cutest part of the set. It's a faux wicker basket (read: plastic) with a faux quilted pad inside (again, plastic). On the "quilt" are three little buttons -- two raised bones, and one raised circle. When you press the ubttons, the two bones make barking sounds (arf, woof) and the circle meows. The idea, of course, is to set the animals on the buttons and they make the corresponding sound. The basket also has little posts on it which fit into corresponding sized holes on Barbie's wrists so she can "hold" it. The basket runs on 3 button cell batteries, which fortunately came included.

As I said, I'm thrilled that this Barbie set actually does something. The sound effects and magnets make it unique. Barbie can "pick up" the dog food or animals with her hand (okay, wrist) and can feed the animals a bottle and it will stay in their mouth. Same with the cat carrying the mouse, or dogs carrying the teddy bear. The pin on the toy rattle is not attached to a sturdy backing and bent the first time we tried to put it in the puppy's mouth (fortunately it didn't break off in the puppy's mouth) so we don't use that any more.

Social Responsibility and Barbie?
The only caveat I would give with this set is that it cries out for social responsibility. A child who is old enough to play with Barbie dolls is also old enough to start learning - gently - a little about the world.

Unlike most Barbies, this one is dressed casually (except for the killer shoes) which is a plus in my book. She has an astounding figure - like all Barbies - but at least she's not trying to take care of baby animals all glammed up for a night on the town. Actually, in our house, she does most of her animal caretaking nude anyway, the clothing long since discarded.

My daughter immediately took to the baby animals. The first question, of course, was "Can we get a baby kitty? Can we get a baby puppy?" After a definitive no, she then struck out with typical four-year-old questions. "Where is the mommy dog? Why don't they live with their mommy? Where do baby animals come from?"

After clarifying the last question (Amy's advice: Always clarify what appears to be a very touchy question before answering. Often the question is far more innocent than you think, and you can go a long way down the wrong road if you try to jump in and answer them without double-checking.) I realized that she simply wanted to know where one goes to buy baby animals. What a relief!

In any case, this led to a long discussion about shelters, animal population control, and why our year-old-rescue cat can't (and won't) be having any babies. We also decided that Barbie was caring for the kitties because they had been rescued, and she was just taking care of them until they could be adopted into new homes. There are rescue organizations across the nation that do just this, which is how we found our cat. We then had to talk about how mommy cats and daddy cats (and dogs) need homes too, and decided that these puppies and kitty were with Barbie because some really good people had already adopted their parents.

The final discussion came when my son saw the holes in Barbie's wrists. "That looks like Jesus did after he got nailed to the cross!" he said, a little appalled. After reassuring him that Barbie had not been crucified (at least not in this house) he set down the doll (which settled me down, as well, since he was grasping her with his fingers over her enormous mammary glands) and went back to his construction project with only a tiny scowl left. I shared the "Crucifixion Barbie" story with my husband, who somehow vetoed my idea of taking her to church for Easter Sunday (I was kidding. Really!).

The point, of course, is that if religion is a part of your house as it is here, the blatant holes in Barbie's hands may raise an interesting question or two with your youngsters. It's an opportunity to discuss Jesus, and how he died, and what a gift that was to us. It's an opportunity to digress into something a little deeper than a child's plaything, and make a difference in your child's learning. Then again, it may never come up in your household -- but in case it does, you might want to be prepared to deal with it lovingly and calmly. Even if it doesn't, you could use it as an excuse to raise the issue with your children, and share the story of God's sacrifice with them in very child-appropriate words.

Overall Recommendations
Having said all that, I would highly recommend this set if your little one is a Barbie fan. I personally think there are a lot more fun products out there than Barbie, and most of them don't set up the social focus on appearance to the extreme that Barbie does. Nonetheless, Barbie-mania permeates our society and it's unlikely that your child will reach kindergarten without being overdosed in Barbie marketing.

If you're going to buy a Barbie set, this one is at least unique, and fun. The animals are cute, the sounds they make are interesting, and the toys and magnets add a nice effect, making it all work together. The accessories are teeny, though, so have a tiny box ready to stick them all in right away so they don't get lost.

You also will probably have the opportunity to talk about the responsibility of caring for an animal, and possibly about religion and Christianity, should you choose to do so. There's also a good chance that your little one will want an animal (or want one even more) after playing with this set, so be prepared with an answer for that. I would also urge you to look up rescue organizations in your neighborhood if you are seriously considering getting a pet.

Until then, I'm off to play Barbies with my daughter. Just me, a very curious four-year-old girl, a scowling 7 year old boy, a nude Barbie and a basket full of noisy baby animals. What could be more fun? (GRIN)

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 10
Type of Toy: Action Figure
Age Range of Child: 3 to 5 Years