Lost Dog

Yesterday might've been one of the most traumatic days for Tristan yet.  He has two pals (stuffed animals) that he carries with him everywhere... they play with him, they sleep with him, they even make it into the bathroom with him.  His first and foremost favorite if Hippup (Hippo... the all natural stuffed animal that he stole from Barnes and Noble when he was really young) and then recently there has been Dog.  Now, let me give you some background story about Dog.  In his favorite shows, The O Show (AKA Word World) one of the characters is a dog.  And in one of the episodes they build a monster and Dog is scared of this monster.  Ever since that Tristan has found this stuffed dog (that he's had prolly since he was born) and has so lovingly named is Lucy.  He named it Lucy because Hippup pals around with Dog, just like he pals around with Lucy.  Now, since this episode Tristan always hugs Dog real tight and gives him kisses and reassures him that he doesn't have to be scared of the monster.  This is part of their nightly ritual.   However, yesterday, Dog went missing...

Just recently we've been letting Tristan take pals with him in the car.  He usually only gets to take one of them... and it's been Dog lately.  He likes to leave Hippup home playing in Lucy's monkey seat.  He's usually really good about hanging onto them and making sure that they're cared for while we're out and about.  Yesterday he took Dog to the library and I dropped Lucy, Gaetan, Duder and Dog off while I quickly ran to Target to get a few things.  When I got back the library was getting ready to close so we were packing up, checking out books and getting ready to leave.  While we were strapping the kids in, we both looked at each other and realized and important member was missing.  Dog.  Gaetan ran back into the library very quickly before they locked the doors and had a look around... with no success.  I asked Duder, who by this time had realized that Dog was missing also, where he thought he left him.  He told me so I went in after Gaetan got back, but with no luck either.  Duder was heart broken.  Gaetan thought that this awful kid who was there earlier had taken him, and that we were never going to see Dog again.

Dude did pretty well for the rest of the night, but then it was time to get ready for bed... and Dog was still missing.  Tristan was mostly upset because he was upset for Dog that he had to be by himself at the library (because that's where he thought he was) and that he was going to be scared of the monster.  So he prayed for Dog.  He said, "Deed God.  Careful dog safe monster no scared dog hug."  He wanted Dog to be careful and safe from the monster and he didn't want him to be scared so he wanted God to give him a hug.  Eventually he did go to sleep without him, but he woke up several times during the night scared for Hippo.

Now, anybody who is a parent knows how heart breaking it is to watch your child be so upset and know there's nothing you can do.  We thought that Dog was gone forever.  We did leave our information at the library in case they did happen to find him.  It was a hard lesson about making sure that he was responsible for his stuff and to make sure that he knew where he left things.  And to him, Dog is one of his best pals.

We looked online to see if we could replace dog but since he's a few years old it was a bit hard to track down.  We did eventually find a Dog replacement on ebay and we just couldn't really go through having him be so defeated... so we bought him.  We kinda told each other that we wouldn't earlier in the day, but it was just too hard on him.

HOWEVER, early the next morning the library called and said that they found dog!  :)  What a relief.  So, Dog's brother is flying in on Tuesday or Wednesday, and I think that maybe Lucy will be able to have a Dog too.  Here are some pics of Tristan with Dog and how excited he was to have him back.

 Playing on the computer together

 Rocking

 Trucks!

And Hippo and Dog got to be reunited too.

I know it seems silly to be so frantic about a lost stuffed animal, but as a parent you want everything for your children.  For them to be happy and to know that we love them.  Its hard not to spoil them rotten... but for something like Dog... he doesn't care much about other toys or even want a lot of them.  But he loves his Dog and Hippup.

JVG