I’m glad I got a positive response for my “Piglet has a bath” thread in MPSIMS. But it seems like no one who read it has ever done what I do: give my stuffed animals characteristics and made them talk and interact with each other, and with us.
It all started with Piglet. When Mr. Rilch and I started living together, I had a couple of stuffed bears, and a frat-boy doll, and I think that was it. Mr. Rilch knew I love Winnie-the-Pooh, and one day we were in Puzzle Zoo, in Santa Monica. They had a huge display of all the 100 Acre Wood characters (the Ernest Shepherd incarnations, not Disney), including Christopher Robin, who I have not seen before or since. I squealed with delight and hugged almost all of them. Mr. Rilch said, “If you could have any of these, which one?” “Piglet!” I said, and thought no more about it.
The following week, I came home to find a Puzzle Zoo bag on the couch, with Piglet inside. I took to him immediately, and not long afterwards, Mr. Rilch and I were having a discussion, or maybe an argument, and I decided to have Piglet put his two cents in. Mr. Rilch thought that was terrifically clever, and we both started talking with Piglet. Then I got Eeyore, and later Tigger. When it really took off, though, is when we found Frances: a little green-and-blue bear abandoned in the Galleria parking garage. We took her home, and now she and Piglet are sweeties.
We’re still adding to the collection. Ah, heck, I’ll make a (partial) list.
—Sam the Bear, or Samwise, was hung by the neck from a stop sign by a yard sale. We were horrified by the sight of a bear being lynched, so we bought him for a dollar. He became Samwise after I started reading LOTR: he talks a lot about his journey with Master Frodo.
—Babs, from Chicken Run, is always a treat. She pecks at everything. Once she pecked at the pepper shaker, which made her sneeze, and when she’d recovered, she kicked it.
—Perry the Pirate Parrot is the guy who growls at me to get out of bed in the morning. He has to manage a whole team, so he’s a good motivator.
—Alison, the rag doll, is very special. She was part of the Valentine’s day display at Hallmark. She has a wooden heart around her neck. Mr. Rilch and I like the heart theme, so when VDay went and she stayed, I asked Mr. Rilch to get her for my birthday. Things were tight at the time, but I didn’t realize they were too tight, on his end, for a $12 doll. He told me she’d already been sold, but I saw her the next day and called him from a payphone. He said, “All right, if it means that much to you it means that much to me.” Later, he came home hiding something in his jacket. “I’ve got someone here who wants to meet you! Told her all about you!”
—Griselda the Smiling Witch was lent to me by someone who never asked for her again. Scummy, I suppose, but she has a good home here. She accompanied me to the release of Harry Potter 4, and charmed the little ones with her humor. There was a magic show at 11pm (the release was at midnight), and Griselda declared afterwards, “I’ve seen better magic shows at Denny’s!..You know, you go into Denny’s, waitress comes up, she’s all nice and friendly, takes your order and then she disappears! Heh heh heh heh!”
So am I the only person who does this? The way Mr. Rilch and I see it, if you’re going to pay as much as $20 for a stuffed animal (Piglet and pals), you should get more use out of it than just having it sit on the bed. At any rate, it keeps children happy, and consequently well behaved.