The Stuffed Menagerie

 

I actually struggled with what to name this post…but I ended up going with “The Stuffed Menagerie” rather than “My Cardboard Footprint” (above photo) because of the following quote:

“Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have things up my sleeve.  But I am the opposite of a stage magician.  He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth.  I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion.”

Tennessee Williams

But we did end up filling up a couple of recycle bins over a couple of weeks as Amazon continued to drop off box after box of stuffed animal dog toys… FOR ME!  It was like everyday in March was Christmas.  It may not have been March but it seems like a long time ago and I’ll get back to that later.

As you can see from the last few photos I knew these were for me and wasted no time in grabbing my favorite from this particular shipment…the colorful fish.  Like my sister before me, I LOVE fish.  Not that I am a pescatarian or anything (still love a good steak) but I’ll never turn down any seafood as you’ll see in a bit.

“How beautiful it is and how easily it can be broken.”

-TW

Once again, Mr. Williams knew what he was talking about…that fish was not long for this world once I got my paws on him.  You may  notice that he is absent from the group photo below.

Since this photo was taken a number of these animals have met their fate but first here is a clip of me and Sammy getting to see the whole crew together for the first time..

In case it wasn’t obvious, all these stuffed toys are MINE!!!!

Since then, my monkey lost its face, my prawn is gone (and it wasn’t a part of the boil my parents went to recently), my first T-rex lost a head, the second one is a lot skinnier than when he arrived, my triceratops is now a non-ceratops, my razorback has no nose, my horse and mastodon have been largely ignored (but they should not feel safe), and my meercat Toni is still my baby.  She sleeps in bed with me and I am asking my parent’s to give her her very own room since she is growing up so fast.

After the big introduction I picked out the prawn and ran downstairs (shown in the video above).  When I was done with him I returned to the bedroom but the rest had disappeared.  I was worried for a bit but then they started showing up one at a time.  That is actually a bit imprecise as I am the one that gets them.  See, whenever I am worked up and NOTHING will work to calm me down one of my parents will take me upstairs, open the closet door, and let me pick out my new favorite toy.

It is very dilapidated now…  where did all my toys go?  Could it be that I trained my parents :).

I’ve had a lot of training to do – like in this instance with the first T-Rex.  He tried going outside without my permission.  “Bad TR!” said I.  “Get back inside now”.

 

“The scene is memory and is therefore nonrealistic. Memory takes a lot of poetic license. It omits some details; others are exaggerated, according to the emotional value of the articles it touches, for memory is seated predominantly in the heart.”

-TW (again)

Sometimes when I come downstairs in the morning or when I get let out of my crate in the afternoon I walk around the house and it looks like a petting zoo or Jurassic park with all the dinosaurs and animals strewn across the floor.  Other times I think it just might be a post apocalyptic scene with all the death and destruction.

The Tempest