When we lived in Germany, my brother and I had some big, stuffed animals that we liked to play with all the time. Our parents indulged us in just about every and any toy we ever wanted. We had SO MANY toys that now, if in mint condition, would bring a small King’s ransom on eBay. Alas, we weren’t very careful with them (as most kids are not) and we put them through lots of abuse.

One of the stuffed toys we had that got probably more abuse than any other toy we had combined was a huge (at least to we small kids) blue stuffed snake. One of my brother’s favorite games was to sit at the end with the head– to help keep him stable while sitting on the snake– and have me grab the other end and whisk him up and down the hallways in our apartment. The apartment had hardwood floors in every room (which was absolutely great for kids wanting to play with toys that rolled and needed to be set up like little plastic army men) except for the kitchen (of course)– and this made for the perfect conditions to blast down the hallway and into various bedrooms at top speed. We would careen into rooms, taking crazy U-Turns and head back out and down the hallway into the living room… only to turn zag back around and do it all over again. Sometimes Matt would fall off as we took one of those ultra-sharp turns, but that was just part of the fun. He’d play up the “crash” angle and go rolling into whatever was handy to make it look more “dangerous”. It was tons of fun.

Unfortunately, Matt wasn’t big enough or strong enough to reciprocate. Every time I would sit on the snake, he’d pull and pull with all his might, but even on the well waxed hardwood floors, he couldn’t budge me without me using my hands to push us along. And that just wasn’t the same.

Somehow, that Big Blue Stuffed Snake never came apart in all that. He must have enjoyed it as well.

I’ve got CHARLIE home with me now. He’s a spunky little fella, as I knew he would be. Unfortunately, I have to keep him confined to an empty bedroom for the next five weeks to give his broken shoulder time to completely heal. He keeps bolting out of the room each time I open the door. It’s going to be difficult and heart breaking to do this to him– but it’s for the best. I let him wander around at times as long as I’m watching him and supervising his movements so he doesn’t jump up and down on anything which would aggravate his injury. I’ll post some pictures soon.

Mike