Horsey's dress

Horsey was in pretty good shape, except for her dress, which was her body, which wasn't as sturdy as her horse skin! Here are her diagnosis photos:

You can see where she had past surgery around her neck. Her family wanted her to get a spa (she was definitely losing some stuffing muscle tone in her legs and shoulders) and to have her dress redone.

She came to the hospital with a little unicorn buddy (Pom Pom) and a very decorated box. She also came with pre-selected fabric for her new dress.

Here she is in her bubble bath:

The plan was to recover the body of her dress, but replace the skirt, so I used a bit of the original skirt fabric, and a bit of the new fabric, to make the heart with a bit of her original stuffing:

And here she is feeling much better. These are chubbiness approval photos (hence the belly poke... there's also an open seam under her skirt):

And here she is all better waiting to fly home with PomPom:

Her young person's response "I love it!"

A happy colorful monster

Have you heard of My Pet Monster? It's a cartoon from 1986, which had one season (also apparently there's a live movie). You can stream it if you like. But for the purposes of this story, the most important fact is that the star was a very colorful smily, monster. And in January of last year, one of the cuddly plush versions was discovered in the back of a closet (so I guess he was a moonlighting as a closet monster?).

In any case, his original person found him, and wanted to gift him to his own daughters, but this monster had clearly had a rough time in the closet. Here is one of his diagnosis photos:

You can see the wound on his chest, and that his teeth are coming out. His feet and hands were vinyl, and had gotten that sticky feel that old vinyl sometimes gets.... and he needed a bath!

It took almost a year, but in December, the monster's family wrote again. Could we schedule treatment and an appointment for him?

Of course! The hospital was pretty full at the beginning of the year (not uncommon) so we scheduled his appointment for early March.

He arrived and the first step was a spa. He's quite large, so he got the large pink tub. :-)

Next he got restuffed, with a heart of original stuffing included ... who knows where his magic is stored, so it's important to keep at least a bit of original stuffing!

For his feet and hands, I can't replicate the printed nails on vinyl, but we didn't really want to do vinyl again anyway for the feel. So his person and I agreed to recover his feet and hands in new black velvet and then give him new nails from felt in the same teal as the originals. Here he is showing off his manicure and pedicure:

And here he is all better... even his fabric surrounding his tusks has been reglued:

and so he flew home to Colorado!

Sailor the Teddy Bear

Sailor the teddy bear's person wrote a month or so ago. Sailor himself was in pretty good shape, except for some small eye issues, but his clothes had worn to the point that she wanted them replaced, and she figured he should enjoy a spa while he was in California as well.

Here isSailor's diagnosis photo:

Now the eye issue which isn't quite clear, is his eyes were a bit off kilter. When he came to the hospital and was getting prepped for his spa, I found the reason -- the post of his right eye (left in the photo) was broken off inside and his eye had been glued into place. Fortunately, as you'll see, we were able to restore his vision to 20/20.

Also, in addition to a new outfit for Sailor, his person was hoping for one of those sailor cape/collars to go over his shoulders, matching the color of his pants and hat. He was to keep his original hat, but the trim at the back needed a bit of repair.

Here's Sailor in his bubble bath:

And here's his heart being made and installed with a bit of his original stuffing:

And finally, here's Sailor all better and ready to fly home! A few things to note about his new clothes --- the shirt and pants are one piece, just like the original. They close with a snap at the top, but have a decorative button where the snap is, that matches the small striped area on the front of his shirt. His new collar/cape is removable as well. You can also see the chubbiness testing photo, where I'm poking his belly (I don't show this usually). This is where his person had the chance to add feedback to adjust his stuffing if needed.

Sailor's person approved and he flew home to Michigan. BTW, he flew both ways with an airtag in his box, so his person knew exactly where he was at all times. The funniest thing with airtag patients is the air tag makes a jingly sound when it moves, so every time I move an air tag patient's bed, I have to remind myself that they don't have internal bells, that's their tracker. :-)

Anyway, Sailor made it home safe and sound and his person wrote:

"He's perfect omg ; ; I can't thank you enough"

Jigsaw Teddy Bear

It's been a while since I've posted about a jigsaw puzzle patient, and I just sent one home, so I thought I'd share his story today. :-)

Mr Theodore E. Bear, known as Teddy to his friends, was not feeling well. Teddy's person wrote:

When I was born, my father bought me my first (and only) teddy bear.  That was 66 years ago.  Sadly, our new pup tore it up.  I cannot describe my heart break.  I lost my dad in 1999 and this was the only personal thing I had left from him.

Could I please get an estimate on fixing him?

I would so appreciate your efforts. 

This is the photo she sent of her Teddy:

She actually had both eyes, and the tears were pretty clean, but Teddy had lost a significant percentage of his head and front body. We agreed on a treatment plan to include a spa (thereby removing Puppy saliva), and he flew to the hospital from Arizona.

When patients are in pieces like this, spa photos can be a bit... disturbing, so I don't send them. Suffice it to say that given his age, the surviving cream and brown parts needed to be separated to be safely cleaned, and I kept his googly eyes out of the water.

Once he was dry, surgery proceeded. It's a bit complicated when you aren't sure what his original shape was. I sent this photo I found online to ask if it perhaps looked like him:

It was so close, his person thought it WAS him at first! But there were issues I could see with this sample. For instance, when teddy arrived one eye was on cream fur. So using this as a guide, but keeping that in mind, I went about putting him back together. There's a fur whose reverse side is a really close match for older, well loved bears like him, and I used that for the darker brown areas. For the missing cream areas (which were really more of a yellow) I used a smooth minky fur.

Here was the first set of photos of Teddy:

Well, it turned out that despite the eyes being on yellow cream on arrival, his person remembered them on brown. That memory is what is important, so that part of his face needed to be adjusted. Also, the head and muzzle were a little too big, as was the nose... but his body was looking good!

Here's the next set of photos (without the nose on... it'd go on once we got the muzzle size/shape right).

That was right! And then there was the new nose, which was embroidered:

All set! His person wrote:

Love it!

Thank you!  

He’s perfect!

Oh, and lest you think I forgot his heart of original stuffing, he did get it, it just goes in at a different time with jigsaw animals that need lots of adjustment. Here it is being made and installed:

Teddy made it home safe and sound. His person wrote: Thank you so much!  You saved him and a huge piece of my heart! Teddy is HOME!  He’s wonderful and I so appreciate your hard work!

Finding Foxy’s Fur

Foxy’s people wrote earlier this year hoping for a full rejuvenation for their beloved fox.  Here are his original diagnosis photos:

Not only were his eyes loose and his tongue and whiskers missing, but his fur had stiffened with age, and was going bald.  We agreed that the best treatment would be to recover all of his fur, tighten his eyes, and give him new whiskers and a new tongue.  He wasn’t getting a spa, because his family wanted to keep his original stuffing.  

Now when patients need fur, whether full recovers like this fox, or transplants on bald spots, I always say I will get as close as possible to either their current or original fur color and texture, depending on their family’s preference.  But… I also always warn them:

Perfect fabric matches are rarely possible, but if that is the case, I will send photos with transplant options so you can choose what you like best.

Especially when we’re trying to match aged fur, or original older fur, this is true.  Fabric styles go out of fashion, fabric colors and patterns go out of print, even with the same exact fabric from the same time, two bolts will be different colors, and then you need to take into account that every animal ages in a different environment, so their fur ages differently.  In fact, for some patients the bulk of their time in the hospital is trying to find that perfect fur, because you can’t match fur by looking at photos.  There’s too much variation in cameras and computer screens.  You need to be able to sit a fur next to a patient.

For Foxy, there was some question as to what his original fur was (maybe orange, maybe a faded brown or darkened gold).  The first fur options were along those last two lines:

The top was closest, but not exact… he had been oranger originally.  So I took another week, and found some more furs, which I ordered from Belarus and Germany!  They arrived and I sent a photo:

The second was the one!  Surgery proceeded… Foxy had white parts that needed recovering too, but there is much easier access to pure white fur, so I could match one I had in texture to the orange his family chose. His inner ears were white satin, which is also fairly easy to match.  Here he is fully recovered, eyes repaired and with his new tongue… we also ended up recovering his nose in new fabric:

And here he is showing off his new black whiskers:

His family wrote:

Oh my gosh, he looks just like I remember!

and he flew home….

****************

Finding a fur for transplants or recovering is always a treasure hunt.  Foxy had time (he was here a couple months) and we were able to search the globe and find a near perfect match to his original fur, but that is rare.  Many patients have close matches though, and if there’s a bit of a color or texture difference between old and new fur, well that’s just a scar… and they did earn it from years of hugs.  What’s important, is the new fur makes them sturdy enough for many more years of hugging. :-)