Fill in the blank (_) in the following sentence from the following choices.
Sentence: The young pet animal would run around and play with the string but not the shoe because the _ was interesting.

Choice 1: The young pet animal would run around and play with the string but not the shoe because the string was interesting.
Choice 2: The young pet animal would run around and play with the string but not the shoe because the shoe was interesting.
Which of the choices is correct? Respond with only "1" or "2" and no additional text.
1
1.