KITTY

About 7 years ago my mom was very ill with cancer. She was a collector of everything. One of her collections were Beanie Babies. She had told my sister's and I to each take what we wanted of all of her collections. For some reason I ended up with the leopard. I have had this beanie for years. It ended up in Jett's pile of stuffed animals.

Last July when I finally got Owen to sleep in his own bed I had found this beanie and a few other stuffed animals and put them in his bed along with the blanket that I crochet for him. I had no idea how attached he would become the the leopard that affectionately became known as "Kitty." As Owen has gotten older he has become really attached to Kitty. I kept thinking to myself that I should not let him take Kitty with him everywhere as we might lose him. But of course I paid my gut voice no mind. Yesterday, the boys and I went on our monthly excursion to Costco. I let Owen take Kitty with him. We were in Costco for about an hour. When we left the store to go home I noticed that Owen no longer had Kitty.

I went inside to the front counter and told them that we were missing our best friend, Kitty. They were kind enough to let a clerk go around the store looking for our stuffed friend. The boys and I backtracked through the store to see if we could find him. I looked in each garbage can, on top of shelves, even started calling for the thing! "Kitty, where are you?" After about 45 minutes of searching the boys and I decided to give up and leave the Customer Center with our name, phone number and a brief description of Kitty.

I felt so bad leaving Costco with out Kitty. I mean I got tearful over this. I did not want Owen to see how upset I was. I took the boys to Toys R Us to see if we could find a replacement. Lately, I have been reading Curious George to Owen. We left the store with George, an over sized purple Leopard (for Jett) and a white furry kitten.

Owen is kinda ok with George but he will have nothing to do with the other stuffed animals. He just looks at them and shakes his head no. This morning he woke up at 6am something he rarely does and we crying for Kitty. Heartbreaking! What could I do? So bummed am I!

My hubby looked up beanie babies online and he found 2 on Craigslist in Reno NV (he is going there tomorrow) for .50 cents each. He is going to get them both and bring them home. I cannot wait for tomorrow night. I think that I am just as attached to Kitty as Owen is. I hope whoever has him or wherever he is he will be taken care of and loved.