Goldie The Stuffed Toy

    Even though we are now all adults, I would bet you can still remember a favorite doll or stuffed animal you received as a child, right? I would guess that you can still remember who that special someone was that gave you that gift, right again?
    I was very, very sick with scarlet fever, quarantined and the whole bit. On my worst day my Grandpa, whom we all called Popop, came to our home and sat by my bedside. As contagious as I was, Popop never left my side that day and well into the night. Every time I awoke he was in his chair, next to my bed, and holding my hand. I adored that man.
    The next day when he returned I was a bit more coherent; the first thing he did was place a stuffed toy dog next to my pillow. I clutched onto that dog and I'm sure I didn't let go of it for days. To this day I still can recall every feature of that dog. It wasn't a big stuffed dog, it was just the perfect size for my small hands. His head and round rolled tail were gold in color; so I named him Goldie. A pretty original name, wouldn't you agree?
    Goldie was my bedtime companion for many years. Oh how I cherished that toy dog. My neighbor, and best friend, said his tail looked like a doughnut. Against my protests, and probably some tears on my part, she would always call, my Goldie, 'Doughnut Tail'. Ask my friend today and she would still remember the story of Goldie.
    Some years later we had gotten a new dog Missy. For about the first year of her life, Missy was a chewer. Just about anything at her level was, in her opinion, fair game for her teeth. I'll discuss her antics in a future post; for now, we'll stick to the matter at hand, Goldie.
    Hurrying into my bedroom one afternoon after school, there was Missy napping on the foot of my bed. Just inches away was my beloved Goldie--now a faceless Goldie. Pieces of its face were scattered across the bed. As I screamed and cried, Missy's eyes looked from me, then to what was left of Goldie, and then back to me. What I saw in those eyes of hers was, "What? You can't possibly think I did that? I would never do such a thing."
    Do you, for one second, think I believed her?

     So long, I'll see you soon!