Stuffed Animals and Plush Oddities

If you work at a desk and deal with walk-in customers, stuffed animals are a perfect accompaniment for your desk. Don’t believe it? There you sit dealing with a customer, your cute little plush atop your computer monitor - but your customer starts being a jerk. They get that way sometimes. It’s so much fun to casually reach with one hand to remove your sweet, smiley “Toad” or “Koopa” (best done without looking at it)...

and replace it with this wicked ghost or the evil Koopa! You may even want to slightly raise an eyebrow, making sure to keep your eyes from straying to what your hand has just done. Hopefully, your customer will get the point and get a grip. Of course, this is only appropriate when it's the customer being unreasonable - if he or she has a serious complaint, you'd better save it. We've all been customers and most likely can remember a time when we gave someone a hard time unfairly. A humorous reminder may be called for - it can work, I know, I've done it.

Besides merely making a work day more bearable, stuffed and plush animals or dolls have more altruistic uses as well. Police carry plush dolls and stuffed animals of all sorts to give to frightened children that have been involved in accidents or other traumatic incidents. Radio stations put out the call sometimes for donations to local drop-off points for collection.

A child enduring the pain and fear of a hospital stay often becomes attached to a comforting plush doll presented to help him or her through the ordeal. Having personally spoken to children who have been in an accident and children who have been in the hospital, I know these are definitely welcomed and cherished. So simple yet so precious.

Stuffed animals are perfect for playing out the stories you read to children. There are plenty of science books available for even preschoolers about animals in their natural environments; stuffed penguins, donkeys, sharks, birds, tigers or any other animals (seriously - even warthogs, lemurs, probably any animal you can think of is available!) will be used to act out the information from the story they just heard. Favorite cartoon or TV characters are always popular too.

Then there are the really odd ones, very, very odd. How about these stuffed white blood cells in a Petri dish? Or the giant microbes? My son's biology teacher has the mad cow disease one and a couple of others to amuse the students. 

Whimsical or adorable, comforting or educational, cuddly or even just plain weird, plush dolls of all sorts are beloved by children everywhere. Parents pack them safely away or pass them down to their children's children, keeping precious memories alive through generations. The special, well-worn plush puppy that was a daughter's favorite now lies snuggled tightly in the arms of the daughter’s own little girl. The funny plush frog that so delighted a son in his early days now is hopped across the floor in the chubby hand of his son.

Whether you're a child with a special stufftie, a woman sighing with sentiment at the sight of a cuddly little bear or kitten accompanying a Valentine's Day card or birthday gift from your  man, a worker making it through the day, or a crazily creative teacher, there's a stuffed animal for you out there somewhere!