The Stuffed Animals Relocation Center

 

Idol Mini Season 2024
Prompt 1
“Someone who will love you in all your damaged glory”
July 6, 2024 

The Stuffed Animals Relocation Center 

My name is Fuzzy Wuzzy, and I need your help.  I want your support for my Stuffed Animals Relocation Center.  I rehome abandoned or lost stuffed animals.  Your donation will help support this worthy cause.

This is my story. 

I am a brown teddy bear, somewhat on the large side, with replacement buttons for eyes and a crooked smile from when Mom repaired me.  I even have a nursery rhyme: 

          Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear,
          Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair,
          Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t very fuzzy,
          Was he?    

I started the Center because I was abandoned by my Boy who outgrew me, even though he loved me and I loved him with all my stuffing.  I never got another child, even though I had so much to offer.  When the Boy was done with me, he stuck me in a box and Mom put it in the attic.  I was all alone, in the dark, with a broken heart. 

Time passes slowly when you’re imprisoned in a box.  Everything was dark and there was no light in my life.  But that didn’t stop me from feeling and thinking.  The lonelier I got, the more I thought about other stuffed animals in my situation.  All that pain was crushing, and I knew I would do something about it, if only I were real and could move and talk.  But I was just a teddy bear stuck in a box.  I promised to dedicate my life to helping other lovies, if only I could get out!  I even had a name for my project – the Stuffed Animals Relocation Center.  Cats, dogs, and other pets could get rehomed, so why not stuffed animals? 

And then it happened!  There was a flash of light in my box, which I did not understand until I heard the sound that came with it – the faint whirring of fairy wings.  I had been visited by a fairy!  How or why, I did not know – that is the way fairies are.  But I could move!  And I could talk! 

I managed to climb out of my box, but the fairy was gone.  I got off the shelf and found my way out of the attic.  I needed to get Outside, but I couldn’t reach the doorknob and stuffed bear paws aren’t good for much.  I hid behind a nearby chair and waited.  At last, Mom came home, carrying sacks of groceries.  She didn’t see me as I slipped out the door.  More like waddled, since stuffed bear legs are also not good for much. 

I hid by day and waddled by night.  I didn’t know where I was going or what I was going to do.  I only knew that I had to keep moving and continue hoping. 

I was moving down a sidewalk late at night along a busy street when it happened.  No, not another fairy.  It was a taxi.  A bright yellow Karl’s Cab passed by me, but then it slowed and stopped.  Karl got out and walked back to me! 

“What’s a teddy bear like you doing out at night,” he said, “and where are you going?” 

“I don’t know,” I replied. 

“Well, what are you going to do when you get there?” asked Karl. 

“I want to find new homes for stuffed lovies who need them.” 

It sounded ridiculous when I said it out loud.  But not to Karl. 

“I know just the place,” said Karl. 

We drove in his taxi for a while, neither one of us talking.  Then he stopped at Joy’s 24-Hour Dry Cleaning and Alterations.  Karl took me inside, and explained my situation to Joy’s daughter Rosie, who handled the night shift. 

“I know where to start,” said Rosie. 

Rosie dry-cleaned me and then went to work fixing me up.  When she was done, I was as good as new!  She even gave me a bright red bow tie made of ribbon. 

Rosie and Joy let me stay with them in the store.  They put a doll crib in a storage closet so that I would have a place to sleep. 

Karl bought me a voice-activated telephone and Rosie offered to do the typing, since stuffed bear paws aren’t good for anything except hugs. 

I got to work right away, trying to find abandoned stuffed animals.  It was very slow going, but I gradually built a network of sources.  Things really took off when Rosie’s cousin created the Stuffed Animals Relocation Center website and twitter account, and got us online.  We hear about a lot more animals now, and Karl will pick them up if needed. 

Rosie cleans the poor animals and repairs them, and I find them new homes.  I carefully screen all the children to make sure they will love and care for them.  Most of our animals go to orphanages, foster children, and the like, kids who have so little and who need the love our stuffed animals provide. 

It’s a creaky, slapdash system and it could be made better, helping more lovies and the children who deserve them.  We need your help.  We would love volunteers to assist with the work, and of course we need money to keep operating.  Your donations will go to saving unloved stuffed animals and brightening the lives of children who need that special love that only a stuffed animal can provide. 

Please visit our Stuffed Animals Relocation Center website (www.sarc.org) and help us in any way you can.  The animals and children will love you for it. 

Now you know our story.  Please help us! 

Fuzzy Wuzzy, Director
Stuffed Animals Relocation Center