Topic of the Day by Popular (well, sorta) Demand! (a few days late, sorry)

[capri0mni]

Today's Topic: Cuddly Animal Toys:



There are times, when the clock is creeping past midnight, past the wee hours, and toward absolute morning, and I can't sleep. It's at those times that part of me cries out for a teddy, (or bunny, or lion, or lamb) to cuddle.

I have stuffed animals on the futon in my great room: 1) a homemade Pooh, Kanga, and Roo that a friend of my aunt made for my cousins when they were small, 2) some castaway toys that the kids of my first aide didn't want anymore, 3) and an art object stuffed rabbit that I gave to my mother for her birthday one year (that the kids of that aide busted open while swinging it around like a baseball bat). But I don't ever considering cuddling them -- they're just decorations to me (sorry, mr_moley)

I also have a whistling Major Clanger, and a cuddly, yawning Bagpuss. Both sent by gordon_r_d. But Major Clanger is too small to take to bed (though I do like to squeeze his tummy and hear him whistle, when I need cheering) and Bagpuss isn't really mine, anymore -- he's been appropriated by my cat, Manda as her cuddly toy ... more on that later.

I think (for me, at least, ymmv) it really is all about those adorable button eyes. Human beings just connect to things with faces and eyes -- it's hard not to see faces everywhere -- even electrical outlets. But button eyess alone don't make a soul. It's what those eyes have witnessed that counts -- whether that creature of cotton wool, rags and thread -- was there to bear witness to the important moments of your life, so they can remind you of those moments when you most need to remember them. If they can bear witness for you, then they become alive, and can comfort you in the wee hours of the night. And I suspect that's why the cuddly animals on my futon are more soft sculpture decorations than anything I would snuggle -- they don't know me.

Now, with Manda and Bagpuss, she couldn't care less about Bagpuss's eyes -- she's a cat, and is not hard-wired for anthropomorphic faces, like we are. But she loves his backside -- loves to mock nurse/knead his back from the tail end. She'll get into that "cloud nine" zone, it's one of the few times when she will purr with gusto. I have Bagpuss at the foot of my bed, and she will spend several minutes kneading him like that before settling down to sleep with me at night. Most of the time, she looks solid jet black, but in certain light, you can see she's really striped with dark red-brown and black. And I wonder if her mother's belly was striped white and grey (since cats can't see pink, Bagpuss probably looks white and grey to her). If so, it could be that Bagpuss's round, furry, striped back reminds Manda of her mother's round, furry, striped belly. And that would mean that a cuddly animal's ability to remind us of the important times when we were small isn't restricted to humans.

Most of the cuddly animal toys who witnessed important times in my life are long gone -- donated to future generations. And I can't replace them with a bought thing, now. But Father is bringing down one cuddly toy that I remember from my crib days: a big, cuddly hedgehog with a checkerboard-patterened body in shades of grey and brown, and brown yarn "quills" that are dreadlock-like. For most of the last 30 years, Hedgehog has been residing in a high bookshelf in the living room of my old house. And he's a wee bit moth-eaten. But it will sure feel good to hug him again.

I've also been contemplating making a cuddly toy for myself, as a sort of huggable talisman. If I tell it what I remember of my childhood as I'm stitching it up, and sewing in those button eyes, maybe it will be almost as if those eyes witnessed my life all along.

What do you think?

Comments

[trinalin.livejournal.com]

On my bed, on the second pillow (where this week Leo is sleeping) lies my oldest & dearest teddy bear, Teeny Tiny Teddy. I got him the Christmas before I was born (I was born a week later) and at the time, he had a music box in his tummy. I don't remember the music box, but dad put a patch on his tummy when the music box was removed. (And there's a patch on that patch when it wore through a bit as well.) Teeny went with me EVERYWHERE for the longest time. Now, I don't mean to elementary school every day or anything, but when I went on trips, he went too. Family outings. Camp. College (every weekend, there & back again). London. Australia. Etc.

He's 34 years old now, and is rather tender, so a couple of years ago (yes, only a couple) I went on a trip without him. He'd been a good luck charm & a comforter, but I was taking my cousin Deanna on this trip to Minnesota, so I had her as a good luck charm & comforter. :-) I've not taken him on trips since - Leo looks after him when I'm gone. And it's interesting that Leo does leave Teeny alone. The other night he was harassing Pooh who sits behind us in bed next to my clock, but he's never harassed Teeny.

When I suddenly get scared of dying (which typically happens at night when I'm trying to sleep) I grab hold of Teeny & eventually I calm down and can attempt sleep once again.

Oh yeah, and I still have most of my snuggle toys from my childhood. Many are sitting in the living room or bedroom or reading room. I need my stuffed toys. :-)

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

And it's interesting that Leo does leave Teeny alone. ...he's never harassed Teeny.

Awwww... Sounds like Leo can sense that you and Teeny are connected somehow...

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

Most of my early plushies are at my dad's, in a drawer, or at my mom's in a box. I get attached to them, but the attachment transfers. I used to think of it as though I was being followed by plushie spirits, who would inhabit whatever bag of fluff and acrylic pile I was dragging around with me at the time. ^^;

There are two with me here: a white tiger named Jinx that my sister gave me for Christmas when I was thirteen; and a 'Wrinkles' dog puppet named Ginger that I bought for myself when I was ten. They're always in my bed.

Ginger has nice soulful droopy doggy eyes that look right at you if you're in front of her, or thoughtfully upwards if you're off to the side. Jinx is always looking at whatever's directly in front of her un-cattishly long snout. (She's been mistaken for a zebra and a hyena.)

It's not their eyes that draw me to them, it's their arms. Jinx in particular has a wide enough chest that I can rest my head against it while her arms are on either side of my head. Whenever I can't sleep, that's what I do, and it always works.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

It's not their eyes that draw me to them, it's their arms.



Yay!

[drox.livejournal.com]

My very first stuffed toy, which shared my crib when I was an infant, is mere inches from me as I type this, dozing on top of my scanner. After I learned to talk I named him Sleepy Dog, because he's in a lying-down pose with closed eyes. He was once covered with silky white plush, most of which was worn loved off long ago.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Gives Sleepy dog a scritch behind the ear. :-)

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

Most of the stuffed animals I have now, I got when I was an adult (including a Wild Thing from Sendak's book that my bro gave me!). I do have a large stuffed lion that my aunt Dorothy made for me when I was a kid, and it's quite huggable. My mom couldn't believe I still had it when she saw it on a visit a couple years back. :)

I don't sleep with any of them, though. I do have a body pillow that I hug, but that's more to keep my hips from hurting than for comfort.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Sounds like that pillow is for comfort...just the physical, rather than emotional, kind.

Of course, I do have the living kitty Manda-bear to cuddle with. And while she is a comfort, she can't understand some of the worries that loom in the wee hours... Oh, and she got the suffix "bear" added to her name, because often, after she wakes up, sticks her tongue out a bit when she yawns, and it looks a little like those stitched-in felt tongues on some teddy bears.