The first thing to come to mind is a stuffed animal I have sitting next to my bed, a Snoopy. The story I was told, time and time again, was that as a young child - under the age of 5 (I can never honestly remember how old my Mother said I was) I saw a more expensive Snoopy in the store, grabbed it and would not let go. My Mother was finally able to convince me to take the less expensive one.
One of the stories from my own memory is from when I was in 4th grade. We had just made a move to a new town and were spending our first night in the house. I couldn't get to sleep and made my Dad go into the garage to find my Snoopy so I could sleep in the new house. I can remember standing in the garage doorway with my Mother, her arm around me watching my Dad open box after box until he found it. I don't remember standing there to long - so he must have known pretty much which box to hunt through/for.
Whenever I think of or see my Snoopy I also remember two other stuffed animals I had for most of my youth. One was a large yellow stuffed bear, I called Yellow Bear, he was a stiff animal with arms and legs sticking out. I can vaguely remember going into a trash can after him once when my Mother threw him away. I no longer have him so I can only surmise that he eventually did stay in the trash; my Mother has long told me that he was beyond repair and she had to get rid of him - I still feel slight twinges of anger and sadness at no longer having him in my possession.
The other companion to this trio was a large stuffed Cookie Monster with large plastic eyes on his head. I can remember the eyes being broken in the center connecting piece and you could make each eye sort of move on its own. Not such a break that he would require trashing. However; with the many moves that happened during the years it is believed he was in a group of boxes that seemed to disappear during one. Again, I always feel sadness at his missing - but not the twinges at anger that Yellow Bear brings to heart.
Snoopy has had several 'surgeries' through his long life. Each ear has been restitched on, his tail has been reattached, his mouth is just a faint line of memory on his face, his nose has threads always hanging loose, and his back sports a child's rough patching job with bright read thread (if I remember correctly, I could not find any other thread and he needed to be fixed RIGHT THAT MINUTE!) His neck also sports several surgery stitches, some in that same bright red thread.
Snoopy has been oversea, away to camp, hidden in bags on trips, and continues to be a part of my daily life by sitting on the nightstand shelf next to my bed. I am known to still pull him out if I am in the dumps and hold my breath when I dare throw him in the wash praying that he continues to hold together at the seams.
With this challenge still being so new, I found I still had a hard time not including my daughter and although the image is not here I also took a picture of my Snoopy with my daughters well loved Ducky.
