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Jan 14
2016
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I completed a special operation last Sunday while Rob and Maisie were out having breakfast: I made Alphonso a pair of pajamas.
Well, they look like pajamas to me anyway. Really it’s a new cover for his body to keep his insides in. Alphonso is Abby’s favourite stuffy. The day we picked her out at the vet’s office we got a whole bunch of puppy supplies and among them was a Kong brand New Puppy Kit that included a puppy sized kong (those things are great) and a stuffed frog with a squeaker that Rob named Alphonso. You can see a picture of little Abby with him here. He is, by far, the best stuffy Abby has ever had and even though she’s had him the longest I think he has had the fewest repairs. She slept with him in her crate every night and would run to get him as soon as I said “bedtime”. She knows his name (and several of her other stuffy’s names) and will usually get him if you ask her to. Even now that she doesn’t sleep in her crate Alphonso is often nearby whatever blanket she is snoozing on.
Alphonso has been sporting a bit of a hole since the fall and his squeaker was getting a bit clicky. Just before Christmas the hole got really big, the squeaker ceased to squeak, and I saw Abby pulling on some loose threads. Alphonso had to go away for a bit to dry out and be repaired. Loose threads are far too tempting. Abby’s agony at loosing Alphonso was pretty funny awful to witness. He was on the back of my scrapbooking table in the sewing room and anytime I was in there she would be whining and trying to get him down. Her excitement when I picked him up to be examined was even worse. It took me a few tries to get her calm enough for me to do anything.
I pulled out the old squeaker in its sherpa fleece bag (I’m sure this is the reason this squeaker lasted so long) and poked around Alphonso’s interior. He had almost no stuffing left in his body but his arms, leg and head were still in good shape. I couldn’t see a reasonable way of patching the hole in his side and decided on making a new body covering instead. Initially I was using some bits of cut up fleece blanket just to figure out my pattern but decided it was as good a fabric as any for Alphonso’s pjs and found a bigger piece when I was ready to start sewing. Really it’s a wearable muslin. I tried it on Alphonso and adjusted things on the muslin and my pattern as I went along so I can make a new cover easily the next time one is needed. I made a new fleece baggy for the replacement squeaker. Incredibly I still had, and was able to find, the original spare squeaker that came with Alphonso when we got him - he had a velcro opening in his back to change the squeaker when it stopped working. The new baggy also closes with velcro so I can change the squeaker again if I need to.
One thing I was a little worried about was that if I changed Alphonso too much Abby would consider him a new toy. New toys tend to be subjected to rougher treatment and I didn’t want that for Alphonso. In order to keep Alphonso himself I decided not to wash him and to return the old squeaker bag to his interior when I refilled him. Getting the new squeaker, in its new baggy, into the old baggy and into Alphonso was a bit of a challenge. Especially since by this point Abby was getting really excited about getting Alphonso back and pulled him off my lap twice. I added a bit of new stuffing to make him feel soft and plump again and pulled on his pajamas.
Then I held him out to Abby.
Total acceptance. It’s hard to come up with a time I’ve seen her as happy and excited that didn’t involve us getting home from vacation. Alphonso was carried around. His squeaker was squeaked. He was used as a chin rest. There is no higher praise.
