I Got A New Teddy Bear!

So...I was at Goodwill yesterday...and I GOT A TEDDY BEAR!!!!! <3

This is one of those low-end Goodwills, so everything's just thrown in a bin and it's up to you to root through it. I was there looking for movies and other junk (and found it), but in one of the bins, I saw this cute, fuzzy face looking at me, and I couldn't walk away. He's obviously been through a lot: he's at least 30 years old, and his old owners didn't care for him very well. His fur is very discolored, he has some tears on him, and he's missing an eye. No one else would want him, and some people would even be afraid of him, but I wasn't. For me, it was love at first site. Considering the store sells items for a dollar per pound, they estimated his value at a quarter or less, but to me, this little cutie is worth more than all the money in the world. The way I see it, he's been hurt in the past, he hasn't been cared for the way he should, and even though someone loved him, not enough people did, and that's why he's the way he is. Basically, his story is the same as mine. I could either pass on him (and no one would ever love him, and he'd probably get thrown out or used for some evil purpose), or I could take him home and give him the love he deserves. I'm not planning on repairing him, since there's really no way to. I don't see damaged people as repairable, and even though I could give him new eyes, do something about his fur, and probably find a way to repair all of the tears, he wouldn't be my Teddy anymore. I'm keeping him the way I found him, because I love him just the way he is. He's gonna get all the hugs, kisses, and cuddles he wants and deserves now, and I'm always gonna love him. <3

So now, I finally have the one thing every little needs! I might like him more than I like diapers! So now, there's two of us here...me, and Teddy! <3 :cuddle:

He looks like he needed a lot of love.

I'm sort of in a bear moratorium right now. My wife used to tolerate a few in the bedroom but she wants the place to look grown up now. I've got a few in the guest room (where my grandsons stay) and some in my office.

1. He does need a lot of love, and he has it now. <3
2. When it comes to your wife, don't be rude or disrespectful about it, but see if you can make some leeway. Your wife could never understand what it's like to be an ABDL, so it's going to be hard. I don't say that callously, and I'm sure your wife is a very nice person. I'm assuming that you don't have that many teddy bears, so see if your wife will compromise. Good luck with you, your wife, and your teddy bears!

He almost looks like my baby teddy bear. The first plushie I ever had. Mine has a music box in his butt that plays a lullaby. :3 Since he looks almost identical, I'm going to bump your bear's age up to between 30-35. Maybe even a bit older than that!

You should give him a heart shaped patch for his missing eye. You could just cut one out of felt and put some string on it. And when you didn't want him to wear it, you could take it off.

Should you ever decide to give him a wash, be careful. With his age it might hurt him to get tossed around inside the washing machine!

Teddy can't go in the washer! He'd get hurt! I'm gonna wash him very carefully, and I'll have to figure out how. He's obviously very old, and my number was only an estimate. He could be from the late 50s (probably from the company that revolutionized that appearance) to the mid-late 80s (by one of the last companies to make bears like that), essentially making him anywhere from 30 to 60 years old. I can't find a music box (judging by the fact that I don't feel one and there's no battery pack opening), so I'm assuming he's not the same, but the age is probably accurate. He's definitely at his final house now. Unlike the old owners (who knows how many he's had), I'm gonna take care of this cutie as long as I have him, hopefully forever. Come to think of it...there's a little girl I know who's really gonna love him...

Starlight99 said:

Teddy can't go in the washer! He'd get hurt! I'm gonna wash him very carefully, and I'll have to figure out how. He's obviously very old, and my number was only an estimate. He could be from the late 50s (probably from the company that revolutionized that appearance) to the mid-late 80s (by one of the last companies to make bears like that), essentially making him anywhere from 30 to 60 years old. I can't find a music box (judging by the fact that I don't feel one and there's no battery pack opening), so I'm assuming he's not the same, but the age is probably accurate. He's definitely at his final house now. Unlike the old owners (who knows how many he's had), I'm gonna take care of this cutie as long as I have him, hopefully forever. Come to think of it...there's a little girl I know who's really gonna love him...

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Oh, no, mine doesn't have batteries, he's got a wind up key. You'd see it on his bottom if he had one. :3 My Teddy is probably why I have such an affinity for plush toys that make noise/music.

He's lovely, he's lucky he found someone willing to take care of him the way he deserves. I love rescuing plushies from thrift stores too, they're always so much more unique than what can be found in regular stores today.

"build a bear" says you can wash them on delicate cycle, but you must put the bear inside a pillow case. And air dry only.
They do repairs as well. For clothes, measure the length of your bear and head over to carter's for baby clothes. I just bough an adorable pants and shirt set for next to nothing. New Born size fits bears to 21". I tried the "build a bear" clothes, but they were too tight, and really, too much money considering the price of kids clothes.

Thanks for the compliments Wuggle! Teddy says thanks too! <3 He is the first rescue I have, and he definitely won't be the last. And your teddy is equally lovely MailCat581! Maybe they'd like to meet one day! Give your teddy some hugs and kisses for me! <3

ArchtopK said:

"build a bear" says you can wash them on delicate cycle, but you must put the bear inside a pillow case. And air dry only.
They do repairs as well. For clothes, measure the length of your bear and head over to carter's for baby clothes. I just bough an adorable pants and shirt set for next to nothing. New Born size fits bears to 21". I tried the "build a bear" clothes, but they were too tight, and really, too much money considering the price of kids clothes.

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Just going to say this here as a somewhat official Toy Rehabber: Build-A-Bear's advice for washing is for the bears THEY make. It doesn't apply universally to all bears. Some older bears are stuffed with 'excelsior' aka wood shavings. If you put them into a washing machine it will literally destroy them. Some bears are made from mohair and can be ruined by detergents.

Some of them have metal bits inside that can rust up if exposed to water, too. I've had a few that had chipboard plates in their feet so they could stand up and if it gets wet, it comes apart quickly. (Think about cheap pressed wood furniture if it's left in the rain. That's what this does, too.)

So just pitching them into a washing machine, even inside a pillowcase, is something you need to think about before doing. Or you could end up with a blob of rags that used to be a teddy. And NEVER dry them in a dryer. I don't trust the machine. And if exposed to any sort of heat, the fur will shrivel up into a matted mess that cannot be repaired.

If interested, Starlight, you can use what is called a 'ladder stitch' to fix up his tears. They'll close up and you won't be able to see them. I feel like Teddy would be happy if he wasn't losing fluff! XD

http://www.squishycutedesigns.com/ladder-stitch/ They have a very good guide that shows how to do it step by step. If you want them to show up as 'battle scars', you could actually use a regular stitch in a contrasting color to his fur. (Or make him little felt 'band aids', which could be very cute depending on where his tears are.)

I'm sorta like the OG Doc McStuffin's. I buy broken toys with the express purpose of repairing them! So I've learned a LOT of stuff over the years about what's good and what's not good in regards to cleaning toys. Give me a grubby Cabbage Patch doll and I'll stuff it into the skin and scrub the hell out of it because I know the fabric will take the abuse. Give me a dusty old antique mohair bear and I'll give him a soft brushing and gentle wash-cloth bath.

ALSO! Build-A-Bear only repairs the bears/plushies that they sell. They will not repair a toy not sold by them.

Thanks for sending me into tears on the train this morning, whilst reading this. I have an emotional sore point for bears that have been discarded. The why of this was my disposing of the bear I had from a toddler, when I was about 18 or 19.

I left my dad's place after an argument about my being transgendered. I went and lived with mum and her boyfriend at the time. I left my bear and other possessions back at dads house.

A few weeks later, I saw the bear in the backyard, sopping wet, and chewed on by the dog. It was a mess, and stank. So I threw it.

Fuq, typing this is hard. Being on the train on the way home even harder.

I now miss that bear so much.

I believe that bears have a soul (even though intelligent adult me says they're nothing but a shell and stuffing). They call out to us in their time of need. So thank you for rescuing that bear.

Wow ozziebee, your father sounds horrible. I'm sorry for the way your father was towards you and your teddy bear, and I wish he could love you the way so many other people will. You have a place in my heart and in the hearts of everyone else here, and even if you don't have him, you'll always have me. :hug:

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As for Teddy, he spent his first night in my bed last night! He got tons of love from me, and gave me tons, too! His body may be broken, but his heart sure isn't! He looked like he wanted a great big hug, and he sure got plenty of them! Hugs, kisses, and tons and tons of cuddles! Unfortunately, I can't hold him all night (although I'd really love to), but he has a special place in my bed where I can't accidently hurt him in my sleep, so he gets to sleep with me and be safe! He'll be sleeping with me again tonight, and every night from now on! Even though I always felt safe in my bed (and even safer with my diapers for protection), I now have Teddy to protect me too! :cuddle:

Starlight,

No, I don't blame my dad for the bear. It was my siblings who raided my room (it was out the back in a shed, built by dad to give me privacy), and left the bear in the back yard.

At the time I decided to throw it away, I wasn't in a good space. Why would I need a teddy bear, one that was beat up, damaged, torn, smelt terrible because it was already amongst the rubbish. I remember finding it, pulling it out, looking at it, and putting it back. Why would I need that bear, I was growing up, going to senior high school, and then uni. I didn't need a bear.

I need that bear now. I think of it almost every day.

I make up for its absence with three other bears that I cherish dearly, one bear almost as old as that one was, given to me the day I came out of gender surgery. He's showing his age now, but I still cuddle him every night.

Anyway, enough about my bear adventure.

I'm a bad bear owner. I've been known to throw my pooh and his little friend smoky bear in the front loading washer and watch them tumble around and laugh at them. Then I put them in the dryer at the laundromat and laugh some more.

Right now pooh is laying on the floor, and has been there all night.

Now I would never leave him in harms way, or leave him some place (drove two hours back to a hotel to get him and my cpap). I take him everywhere I travel to as well.



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As for ozziebee's new bears, it's kinda like pets. Even though they're not human, they become like humans. When they die, they take a piece of our heart with them. We can get new ones, and sometimes we do, and even though we love our new pets, we'll always love our previous pets as well. As for Pooh and Smoky, as long as the washer and dryer doesn't hurt them, that's their bath time, so it's not like torture. It would be the same as watching a little kid in a bubble bath splashing around. It would be funny and cute, and you'd know they were getting clean. So I'm sure Pooh and Smoky don't mind the washer and dryer much, because they know they're getting clean and they know that lots and lots of cuddles are coming as soon as they're done! Both ozziebee and diapernh give tons of love to all your bears for me! <3

Those guys are having a wild bath time. LOL

I was just warning not to go ahead and do machine washing/drying with every bear. I have Cottontail, my lovey bunny from childhood and when she starts getting funky smelling, she goes into the washing machine and gets gentle-cycled as she's getting kind of old and I don't want her to get hurt in a 'wild bath'. (She's already been re-sewn on every seam she's got!)

It looks like Pooh and Smokey are 'new enough' that a wild trip to the bathhouse isn't going to hurt them too much. I've got a couple of fuzzies that need a bath pretty bad, maybe I'll make a 'how-to' guide with pictures. (I was invaded by a mouse...thus far it has eaten five out of six poison bars. He gon be ded soon.*)

(*I like mice, and I don't usually go out of my way to hurt them, but this little screwball has it coming to him. He's been running across my BED. Don't know if people know it, but mice dribble pee everywhere they run. Thusly my bed and the surrounding area is now mouse piss-certified. I had a big cleaning up last night. I also suspect this mouse and his friends are why my guinea pig died suddenly. I fear they dragged in some kind of disease and gave it to him without me realizing he was getting ill. So yeah, I'm gonna avenge dah piggy.)

Five of six poison bars... you have more than one mouse in the house!

You can probably get him totally wet in the sink and use a teeny amount of gentle detergent. Use a toothbrush in small circular motion for any tough spots. I would find a way to at the very least treat him to some heat in case he's had the unfortunate experience of being around bedbugs

I'm hoping the mouse/mice problem is handled soon, CuddleWoozle. As for the bedbugs idea, it's kind of a moot point, since this is his third night in my bed. Besides, being that he's easily over 30 years old, heat might outright destroy him.