Everybody has a favorite stuffed animal while they're growing up. There's always that one that you choose to be a bedtime buddy, to take trips to grandma's house, and pick for show and tell. My favorite was Foofur. Do you remember him? If you don't, check out the cartoon below that starred the titular blue dog. Man, looking back it was pretty awful!

Foofur is still kickin', all these years later

After Foofur served his purpose of being my sleeping companion when I was a youngster, he went into storage for years until he was passed down to my daughter. He still has a home in the unnecessarily large pile of stuffed animals in my daughter's room. And every once in a while he still gets picked to sleep in her bed for the night. And might I say, he still looks pretty good for having his tag say © 1984!

Photo: Ryan Nelson
Photo: Ryan Nelson
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The start to a great story!

If you have kids you know how attached they can be to their favorite stuffed animals. The last thing you want is the meltdown that comes when it's time to leave the house and they can't find Mr. Cuddles. I loved seeing this story from KPAX where a young girl lost her stuffed bear and they were miraculously reunited a year later.

The bear had a pretty amazing backstory as Naomi was adopted from an Ethiopian orphanage five years ago and Teddy was the first gift given to her by her adoptive family. Naomi lost Teddy while she and her family were on a hike at Glacier National Park last fall. The family returned to Wyoming and the bear was later found by a park ranger as he was patrolling after a snowstorm. He put the stuffed animal on the dash of his vehicle and it became a mascot of sorts for about a year. Wherever the patrol car went, there was Teddy riding along.

How crazy is this?

Fast forward a year, and some family friends of Naomi's parents were hiking in Glacier National Park when they happened to see Teddy sitting on the dash of the park ranger's vehicle! What are the odds? The family knew the story about Naomi and Teddy being separated late last year and presented details to the park ranger. All the dots were connected and young Naomi recently had a package show up at the door. After a year, Teddy was home again!

If that doesn't bring a smile to your face today, I'm not sure anything will! And as a reminder, always buy an extra version of whatever stuffed animal becomes your child's favorite!

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