You see, Ronin had a beloved raccoon puppet that he would sleep with every night as a little boy. He loved that little raccoon. But after a couple of years being exposed to a little boy through sicknesses, throwing up, wetting the bed when being potty-trained, this little raccoon was looking ragged and I when I washed him in the clothes washer, he came out looking like a mangled, dead rat and I couldn't get him to look any better. I figured it was time to get rid of him. Surely Ronin wouldn't notice his absence since he had a ton of other stuffed animals to keep him company.
So I threw him away when Ronin wasn't around to see me do it.
Yeah, I know. I'm guilty as charged.
I was wrong about Ronin not noticing. In fact, he would search every day for his little raccoon. Looking behind his bed, in his toy boxes, asking the rest of us if we had seen him. I would just say, "I'm not sure where he is, honey." (Technically, I really didn't know EXACTLY where he was - somewhere in a landfill I'm sure.) I figured after a week or two he would forget all about it.
Boy, was I wrong about that too.
In fact, as the last few years have gone by, he would often talk about it, telling me how sad he was that he couldn't find his raccoon. He would still look for him, I would even find him searching out in the garage. He would still ask us if we had seen him. I finally realized just how attached he really was to that little fuzzball and that he wasn't going to get over it. EVER!
So I began to search for a replacement. Searching different stores and the internet with no results. I couldn't find this raccoon anywhere! I was beginning to feel a little sick about the whole thing; I was losing hope. I gave up looking.
Finally, it was when Jed and I celebrated our anniversary just a few weeks ago that we found some animal puppets in a little bookstore. It prompted me to I finally tell Jed my little secret - even he didn't know what I had done. Together we hoped that maybe this same company that had manufactured the other animal puppets had also made the raccoon too. So I later checked online and lo and behold, there he was! After all these years of looking, I finally found the exact little baby raccoon puppet! Yay!
I immediately ordered one and it arrived 3 days later. I admit I was feeling pretty excited. I could finally make things right.
The first chance I got, I called for Ronin to come to me. I pulled out that raccoon from behind my back. I'm pretty sure Ronin's face went into shock. It was the last thing he expected. I explained that this was a new one but that it was just exactly like the one he used to have. With a big grin from ear to ear, he grabbed that little raccoon and hugged him.
All is well again.
He's hardly put Raccoon (that's his name) down since. Raccoon goes just about everywhere Ronin goes. And once again, he is snuggled with night after night.
It feels good to make things right.
