Pooh Bear Scare

Our Pooh Bear is a faithful bear. He has seen many hard days of use since he entered the family around 1970. He used to have a wind-up musical feature playing the familiar Winnie the Pooh melody, but I dropped him in the pool when I was still very small and it never worked after that. To comfort myself, I used to wind the key backwards, playing a jangle of notes, and because I did that, when the Pres tried to fix it a few years ago, it was impossible. My back-winding had broken off the fingers or the nubs that made the sound when it was wound.

But Pooh was still loved and happy and our Fidget has loved him for seven years now. In the past few years he has taken to dressing up for Halloween. First he was a giraffe.

 Then he was the Cowardly Lion. He liked this one so well that he kept it for two Halloweens. But this week it is being retired.

 This week under his costume Fidget felt that one of Pooh's legs was falling off, so we had to do a little bit of surgery. You can see Fidget tried to get into the spirit of it with her little doctor kit. The evening was very traumatic for Fidget. She did cry, but was satisfied she could still hear his heart beat and knew he would be all right.  

When a bear is over forty years old, it is hard to put a stitch where it will stay. So I sewed the leg up and then we settled for satin tourniquets for a leg and an arm. The other leg and arm could use them too, but we stopped there. And Pooh seemed happy.

For now, he is back in his cowardly lion suit and his read sweater vest with the Marine Corps rank and insignia. But I am working on his new Captain America suit. Another young upstart Pooh who has lived with us about 5 years is going to try taking over as the carry-around Pooh. If they have matching costumes we expect this should go over reasonably well. The old Pooh does not want to stay home, but he is so fragile we don't want to risk it--

He is one loved bear.