Puppy Tales

Anyone acquainted with our sweet little Matty is probably also acquainted with Matty's best friend Puppy. Matty and Puppy have been inseparable since Matty was about 14 months old. It was love at first sight for Matty- Puppy was sitting in a display at the front of a Kohl's store. He is supposed to be the dog from the "Are You My Mother" book. As soon as Matty saw him, he had to have him. We let him hold him while we shopped and Matty would not put him down. He just hugged him and cuddled him the entire time. So we decided we'd better buy him and bring him home with us. Since that day Puppy has kept Matty safe every night and played with him every day. These pictures of Matty and Puppy were taken in July '05, a week or two after we brought Puppy home.

This picture was taken at Faith's house on an army base in Germany. Puppy has been on numerous airplanes and has visited Germany, France, California, and Arizona.Because Matty is so attached to his puppy, I got worried about us losing him. By the time we realize a back-up puppy might be a good idea, Kohl's was no longer selling them. I did, however, find one on Ebay about a year ago and bought it and hid it in my closet in case something disastrous ever happened. A while after that we came home late one night from Grandma and Grandpa's house and realize we left Puppy over there. Instead of having Mike drive back to get him, we decided to try out his twin. I got him out of his hiding place and put him in bed with Matty. Now, without fail, the first thing Matty does when he picks Puppy up is smell him, which is what he did with the impostor. He smelled him, then looked at him, then smelled him again and said in a worried voice "Puppy's fuzzy". He didn't smell right or feel right and Matty was getting upset. So we told him it was Puppy's friend and asked if he could keep Matty company that night and then in the morning we would go and get Puppy from Grandpa's house. That was not acceptable to Matty. He had to have HIS Puppy. He didn't even want to hold fake Puppy. So I put him away and Mike went and got Puppy while Matty lied awake in bed and waited. The next morning Matty asked where Puppy's friend went and we told him he had to go bye-bye.
Last summer on June 29th, Matty told me that it was Puppy's birthday. So we made him a birthday cake and decided it was his 2nd birthday since it had been almost exactly two years since we had gotten him. So now June 29th is Puppy's birthday.
Not too long ago, Eric started showing quite a bit of interest in Puppy. He is interested in just about everything his big brother does, so I wasn't surprised. One night we were trying to get the boys up the stairs for bed, but Eric took Matty's Puppy and would not give him back. Matty was getting VERY upset. Then it hit me: Puppy's friend! I ran upstairs and found him and brought him down to show Eric. He immediately recognized it as being the same as his brother's and realized it was for him. So he gave Puppy back to Matty and grabbed his own Puppy from me and hugged and kissed it and was SOOO excited. Matty thought it was pretty cool that Puppy's friend came back to be Eric's Puppy.


Obviously even though they are the "same", they are very different. Matty's has been through years of (loving) abuse and looks pretty old and tired. We definitely don't have to worry about getting them mixed up.
Eric is pretty much just as attached to his new Puppy as Matty is to the original. He HAS to have him to go to sleep. The bond was like instantaneous. I don't know what it is about this stuffed animal that they like so much. I guess I'd better start looking on Ebay again for another back-up!
Well, last week June 29th came around again so Matty and I made cupcakes. To make things easier, we decided that the two puppies have the same birthday. Matty's puppy turned 3 years old and Eric's puppy turned 1. The cupcakes are copies of ones my friend Julie made for the pool party we attended recently. Matty thought Puppy would like them. The blue ones are supposed to be water and have a teddy graham on top laying on a peach o as a floatation device. The other ones have graham cracker crumb sand on them with teddy grahams sunbathing on fruit leather beach towels, some with drink umbrellas. I thought they were so cute for the pool party. Since the 29th was on a Sunday, we took the cupcakes to Grandpa's house to share with everyone after Sunday dinner. Matty's cousins didn't quite understand why they had to sing Happy Birthday to a stuffed animal in order to get a cupcake! But we truly feel like the Puppies are part of our family!