Before going too far, however, I need to tell you that there's no problem about telling you how the Coldham Cuddlies Toy Animal Hospital operates, and what happens to their Patients. We all love Everyone to know how we looked when we arrived, and how we go home better looking (in some cases), as well as different. This week, we have two Patients to tell you about - as I promised I would last week. Also, I'm pleased to tell you that we have the missing photographs, plus some extra information about Teddy Bear Thornton - TBT (known now as Benjie Bear) that I mentioned in last week's post as well. Will share those with you once we've completed this week's news stories.
Very shortly after TBT arrived in our home, Isobel got a telephone call from a worried parent (Dad of a little girl whose Best Friend had got too close to an electric heater, and ended up with a damaged face, with no eye on one side, and a bad hole in one ear). He'd found out about the Coldham Cuddlies restoration services by "googling" (whatever that is!) and decided to see if Isobel could help. He was scheduled to be driving past our driveway a few days after the contact, and asked if he could call in and show us the damage.
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| Our new patient upon his arrival |
We found out that this cheerful (or normally cheerful) chappie was called Lollopy Dog and his Forever Friend - a small girl - took him everywhere she went. However, she wanted him to look as he'd done before he got too close to that fire - and was prepared to let him stay with us for as long as it would take Isobel to get him right.
From a quick inspection (it was Dad's lunchtime, and he had a meeting to go to that he didn't want to be late for), Isobel felt we could do something to assist. So Lollopy Dog stayed in our bedroom with me, until we could find suitable fleece fabric with which to undertake the necessary repairs. We'd got brown fleece already in store: it was the pale yellow that we needed to match. As we were still waiting for TBT's mohair fabric to arrive from our supplier, Isobel got on a 'bus next day to see if she could find the fleece she needed at one of our local suppliers - the main one, in nearby Mansfield. She was in luck, with a colour match - even if the fleece fabric was somewhat different (it was actually a piece of felt) - so we could begin work pretty well immediately.
Then, out of the blue, one of our previous customers for small Bears this time - MsHG - (who lives almost at the other end of the UK from us - in Devon) contacted us to see if we could help her out with a new Bear purchase she had just made. He was a finger puppet when she purchased him from somewhere "on-line" but really wanted him to be able to sit/stand on his own when he came to live with her - and wondered if it would be possible? That didn't sound too much a problem, and as we were then very much in the treatment/waiting mode - what with TBT and Lollopy Dog staying with us - Isobel asked MsHG to post him to us.
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| Little Pooh Bear on arrival |
You can see from all these pictures, that Little Pooh Bear was quite a lot smaller than TBT, who is shown minus his right ear (which had been sent to the Mohair Bear fabric supplier for his new coat to be matched).
With Isobel now waiting to begin work on Lollopy Dog and TBT, she looked through our fabric stash, and found a suitable piece of fleece (which is what Little Pooh Bear is made with). Although it wasn't an exact match, as he was going to be standing on the new base and therefore the work done not in sight, we decided to go ahead and get him back to Devon as quickly as possible. The job didn't take long. It consisted of Isobel putting enough polyester stuffing in to the hole where a finger had previously been used to manipulate Little Pooh Bear when he was a Finger Puppet, sewing the resulting seam caused by the new base so that it looked as though he'd always been a small, standing Bear, and then wrapping him up and posting him back to Devon.
He looked like this before he left us -
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| The labels were with Little Pooh Bear when he arrived: so we kept them in place |
and as far as we now know, he's been travelling around in MsHG's handbag ever since.
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| Little Pooh didn't have any mouth: and we weren't asked to provide him with one - so we didn't! |
Now back to Lollopy Dog and his special treatment. He was quite a handful to cope with, because in the end, Isobel had to replace the whole of his front head and face, as well as both ears. (Using felt instead of fleece really necessitated this drastic change). This required the existing head to be de-stuffed, and the damaged front of the head to be cut away from the back, which was retained. She then threw away the damaged ear, and took a template (drawing round the left ear on cardboard), and cutting out the resulting shape for both the ear (cardboard) and the front face (using the existing fabric shape as a guide).
The brown fleece we had in stock was somewhat darker than his original ear colour, so we decided he would look "odd" if both ears were not the same when he returned home. Isobel managed to rescue the one remaining eye, made a template for a new one, and using the same fleece used with the new ears, made two new eyes, so that they too matched each other. Lollopy Dog's nose was re-used too, and as his smiley face had fade a bit with all the loving he'd gone through, Isobel re-embroidered that as well. She had one or two worrying moments - when she couldn't remember exactly how the face pieces originally went together. But once she'd fiddled around a bit, all went well, and Lollopy Dog ended up looking like this.
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| We rescued both eyeballs, so they could be attached to the new cut out eyes |
While Isobel had been handling Lollopy Dog, she noticed that he was pretty floppy, and decided he could do with some bulking up. Realising that part of his overall charm was that he should be floppy, (we guessed that had something to do with how he was called!) she was careful not to make him too firm, but at least now, when Lollopy Dog and his Forever Friend are together, he'll be more of a cuddly armful to be played with - and, hopefully, last for many more years than he might otherwise have been able to do.
Lollopy Dog stayed with us for a couple of weeks before returning home - so that he could be picked up by Dad when he was going home after another meeting with his client in our area. As far as we know, everyone had a terrific Christmas and life now goes on as normal. (But hopefully, without Lollopy Dog getting too close to electric fires again!)
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| Meet Sister Clare, Sister Breda, Sister Rose and Sister Mercy Clerical Bears |
Since our Patients returned to their respective homes, Isobel has been busy with the Clerical Bears. They have increased in number - with the whole collection now numbering 9. Plans are being laid for another session of Sunday morning airings after Easter - to remind people that they are still available, especially as St. Barnabas Cathedral is about to start a year long celebration of being 175 years old this year. She's also made four Big Bears (using the same pattern as me) recently, so we'll be telling you about these new Coldham Cuddlies in the coming weeks, too. They're all destined to be well-travelled Bears when they've got to their eventual destinations!
Meanwhile, that's it for this week. Hope to be back again sometime next week-end, but it is Easter Week-end, and who knows what might happen then? Have a very Happy Easter, Everyone - until we meet again.
Your Friend, Cy Bear.
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