Doodles

MiniBlood gets his fair share of press around here.  Rarely does ms.Mini play poker, even a Chip Challenge™, so she doesn’t always get any focus on a poker blog.  This entry is no different, as it’s not about poker.

Doodles is a stuffed frog.  It just happens to be ms.Mini’s favorite little stuffed animal.  It’s pink and as with many 7 year old girls, pink is her favorite color.  When Sunday night rolled around and it was time for bed, nobody could find Doodles.

Backtracking through the day, we realized that the last time Doodles had been seen was Sunday morning – msMini had taken her to church.  A frantic search through the miniVan confirmed our worst fears, Doodles was more than likely lost for good.

The tears came and they weren’t easy to quell.  Mrs_Blood and I told ms.Mini that we’d look all over for her and that she should try to go to sleep.  The first search and rescue attempt failed, Mrs_Blood went back to the church at about 8pm to check the Lost and Found.  Sadly Doodles wasn’t there.  Mrs_Blood felt like it was a scene out of Toy Story when Woody and Buzz disappeared.

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Kids grow up way too quickly.  It had only been two weeks ago when ms.Mini told us she didn’t need to sleep with any of her “friends” anymore.  We asked her who told her that, because quite frankly, a seven-year old deserves to be a seven-year old and sleep with as many stuffed animals as she sees fit.  She didn’t say, but we thought it may have been someone at school or some dumb TV show.

I told her the next night that Doodles had told me she was lonely.  Soon enough, there was one stuffed animal who got the privledge of sharing ms.Mini’s sleep space.  Doodles.

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It was with that thought that I drove back to the place we had breakfast on Sunday morning.  It was 10pm, and I figured there would be no way a stuffed animal would be left in the parking lot over the course of the day.  Mrs_Blood had hypothesized that Doodles may have fallen out of the minivan as the kids got out to go eat.

Alas, the second search and rescue mission failed too.

Ms.Mini seemed over her tears in the morning when I drove her and miniBlood to school.  Surely it was a good sign, but like I said, kids grow up way too quickly.  It was about 11am this morning when a lull during work sparked an idea.

I took a short drive to GSP International Airport.  I recalled where Doodles was originally purchased and I figured a quick drive there to see if she had any twin sisters was worth a shot.  Luckily, there were other pink frogs on the shelf of the gift shop all looking for a home.  What better home could they hope to find?

I brought the newly purchased Doodles back to the house and put it on the kitchen table.  Since msMini can read quite well, I wrote a note that said:
“Dear Morgan, I missed you last night.  Luckily someone found me and gave me a bath to clean me up.  I told them where you lived and they brought me back.”

Love Doodles