Fluffy has been Found!

Break out the champagne!..or at least the sparkling cider.  I never would have thought a stuffed animal could elicit such an emotional response. 

That morning when Allie left for school, she was a little despondent.  She had not slept much the night before.  My sister had found and let her take a few substitute animals for nap time.  She had to explain to Allies’ teachers why she was so sad.  Leave it to a preschool teacher to completely understand the devastation.  My sister felt awful.  What kind of mother lets herself get so distracted she loses her daughter’s favorite toy?  Never mind that she was distracted because she was trying to make sure Allie was comfortable after her procedure.  She still left like a bad mother.  She had a rough night too.  She was close to tears when she called me that morning to tell me about Fluffy.  I had to take part of the day off to have my eye examined, so I told her I would be over afterwards to help her look again.  We tore the house apart again.  The more we looked, the bleaker the prospect of Fluffy getting misplaced in the house.  I told my sister to calm down and look under Allie’s bed, again…slowly this time.  You could hear her scream outside.  There he was.  Hiding in the last place Allie had put him.  Well not quite, to be fair.  Allie was playing with Fluffy in the living room and my mom had picked up some of her toys in the haste to find him several hours later and didn’t notice he was in one of them.  But at this point, it was really mote.  He had been found.  I couldn’t wait to see Allie’s face.  I had to stop at Target before I made my way to my sister’s house that morning.  I was wondering around waiting for my prescription, and I bought Allie a new puppy.  He wasn’t to replace Fluffy.  He was to keep her company while we looked.  I was going to tell her that he was Fluffy’s friend and he had come to keep her company because he was worried about Fluffy.  Hey, anything to take away some of the pain.  My sister and I sat in her room crying over the newly recovered duck.  We felt like heroes. 

Now that we had found Fluffy, we couldn’t wait to go and get Allie from school.  Lucky for us, the school is right across the street from my sister’s.  The kids were in naptime, so my sister had to wake her up.  So here is where I should mention that Allie had to go to her dad’s earlier than usually so they could go visit her grampa in the hospital, so we really did had to go and pick her up early.  My sister gently woke her up and was talking to her teacher.  She said Allie had been so sad all day.  I handed my sister Fluffy so she could be the one to give him to Allie.  It took her a few seconds to realize she was really seeing him.  Her eyes lit up and she grabbed him so fast.  She was the happiest little girl.  And I am sure Fluffy was pretty happy too.  She snuggled that duck.  Held him so tight he was hard to see.  What an amazing reunion.  Then she saw the puppy I had brought.  She asked me who he was and I told her he was Fluffy’s friend.  She snatched him out of my hands pretty quick.  She walked out of school that day carrying 4 animals.  She looked like she had hit the little kids’ lottery.  Pretty sure she felt that way too.  Fluffy will be getting an id tag just in case he really does get left behind someday.  So if you ever find a little yellow duck with a collar and an id tag lying around…please let me know.  His name is Fluffy, and he is one lucky duck!