Our Fifth Family Member

When Brody was born he was given a silky blue stuffed dog/blanket. It was either Aunt Kakie or Aunt Ethel who gave it to him, but no one can remember due to the sleep deprivation we were experiencing at that time.

Either way, it got put in a pile with the rest of the rattly, squeaky stuffed toys that he was given. About the time he learned that he was able to use his fingers to pick things up, I started giving him some of his stuffed toys to hold. However, like many children, he was completely disinterested in the actual toy and was only interested if there was some sort of silky tag. With each of them, he would scritch the silky tag between his fingers. It seemed to soothe him, but many of the toys were too big for him to carry around. I got him one of those "taggy" blankets, but his didn't like it for some reason. Then finally, I pulled out the blue dog and it was love at first sight.

Ruff (as he was named) quickly became a member of the family. Where ever we went and what ever we did, Ruff was with us. I immediately tried to find a second identical Ruff to have in case of emergencies (if you are a parent, you know what I am talking about) but was unable to find one that was EXACTLY the same. I did however, find a similar blue dog blanket, and because Brody was so young, he didn't know the difference.

Over the months, Brody became more and more attached to Ruff. He slept with it. Ate with it. Took it everywhere. If you've known Brody over the past 3 years, you are also acquainted with Ruff. Several times, he was misplaced and the "backup" Ruff was brought into play. It was sufficient, but he was always happy when the "real" Ruff was found. At about 18 months, Brody was able to distinguish between the two and realized there were in fact 2 Ruffs. Of course, then he wanted both. But, not surprisingly, the original Ruff remained the favorite.

At some point, Brody began to wear through the underneath part of the blanket that connected to the head. I tried repeatedly to sew up the hole that was getting larger and larger. Eventually, he wore it through so that he could stick his finger into Ruff's head. Then it was only a matter of time before he began to pull the stuffing out. It took several month of quietly laying in bed at night pulling out the stuffing bit by bit, but eventually Ruff became flat. Each morning, Brody would gather up the stuffing he had pulled out the night before and place it carefully into his "fuzz pile" in his room.

For the past several months, Ruff has been completely deflated, until this morning when Brody announced he wanted me to fix him. So, the two of us carefully took all the stuffing from the "fuzz pile" and placed it back through the small hole into Ruff's head. Pleased that he was no longer flat, I was instructed to sew him up. And after some minor surgery, I am pleased to report that Ruff is back to his old fighting weight.

Over the years, Ruff has been spilled on, eaten on, dropped in the mud, dropped in the potty, run over, used as a weapon, lost, found, ripped, stitched and loved until his stuffing all came out. I'm not quite sure how long Brody's love affair with Ruff will last, but I have a feeling I'll be holding on to it long after he decides he no longer needs it. And maybe one day, when he's grown with a child of his own, I'll make sure Ruff is ready if he's ever called into duty again.