simple story, simple art style, simple gameplay, all and all this game is relatively simple. does that make it bad? short answer, no. this game is very cute and suited for more child audiences like your sprite games (that i have also played) . The writing is simple and easy to follow like most flash game stories would be. there are a few minor problems that i have come across but they are mostly me just nitpicking at the very few flaws in this game.
1: you have already heard this a dozen times but the item spawning could use a bit of a adjustment like if the number of items on the list is reduced the spawn rate of the other items would increase to fill the spawn rate gap.
2: the gameplay although fun tended to get a bit too repetitive past mission 5 besides the introduction to the poisons and the dog i didn't feel much drive to keep going after a while. if you plan to do anymore projects like this in the future please add more variety to the gameplay. your sprite games may also be a bit repetitive but thanks to daily items and unlocking other characters it doesn't feel like all your work is going to nothing.
3: the rare dog glitch, ahh yes even the simplest games have some sort of glitch, this game's is the instant dog glitch. the dog has instantly caught me twice on this playthough forcing me to take on to the next day. as far as i know on this matter that the glitch happens on random occasions after the dog has been introduced. it could just be a programming error and probably be easily fixed.
lastly 4: the story is a bit to short for my liking, i enjoy simple stories and such but with these characters they would have been more likable with more events in the story. now i know this game is aimed at a younger age group but even 8 year olds like a longer story if its interesting enough.
over all it is a good simple game and you did a great job at it, i give it a 3.5/5.0 due to the reasons above.