Someone is missing Teddy

[Swift]

For some reason, this story really caught my fancy.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/04/world/europe/uk-lost-teddy-bear/index.html?hpt=hp_c4

His fur is worn in places, his nose is rather threadbare and he's a little saggy round the middle.

But staff at Bristol Airport in the west of England believe the elderly teddy bear left in the departure lounge more than a year ago, along with a photograph dated 1918, must have a loving family somewhere.

...

Airport staff were initially hopeful that the bear would be reclaimed, but so far no one has come forward.

Efforts by airport staff and police to trace its owners have also proved fruitless -- so now the airport is hoping the general public can lend a hand in solving the mystery.

"It is obvious the bear has been well loved for many years," said Jacqui Mills, a spokeswoman for Bristol Airport. "During the last 14 months we had been hopeful that the search would result in him being reunited to his family. We have not been successful in this search and have drawn a blank."

I hope Teddy finds his home.

[Hap]

I have my teddy bear from when I was a wee lad. Very threadbare, and the stuffing has lost it's oomph. It sits in a cedar chest my mom gave me with a lot of other family heirlooms, like the winter coats my great-grandmother and her brother wore when they were small children. In the end it is just stuff, but there is a lot of sentimental attachment to them.

[Rommie]

I still have my teddy equivalent, a yellow stuffed rabbit I got for Christmas one year (which has glow in the dark stars on it- conclude what you will! ); named Honey Bunny cause three year olds are really clever like that. She's still on my bed.

I guess it's one of those things whereby the later you are in life the fewer of these things you still have to remind you of times past, so the few you keep close just get that much more important.

[Thumper]

I still have my Bankie in the closet.
The Kid will probably take Tigger to college.

[Swift]

I don't have any of my childhood stuffed animals. I had a very nice bear (I don't think he had a name other than Bear), but one of our cats, when I was a teenager, decided he was her kitten, and licked all the fur off of him. I think a couple of others I had are with my sister.

But I have a few adult ones that are about three feet away from me in my office. I have Opus from a then girlfriend in grad school, a gray bear I think my then pre-wife gave me for a valentine, a Golden Toad I bought at the zoo for a fund raiser for their captive breeding program, and a lion that I don't recall where he came from.