I’ve been so excited to share Meow’s story with you all! I mean, he’s a partial recover, and you’ve seen those before, but in this case, I used multiple fabrics to replicate his striped original fabric and I was really happy with how he came out… and so was his family. So, without further ado, may I present Meow!
Meow is a very small cat, maybe 7″ long? Less if he’s sitting. But he had been very well loved in his short life. His person’s uncle wrote to me, asking if I could help. Here is the diagnosis photo he sent:
Just fyi, his balding was also pretty serious on his back.
There were a few options for care, but treating his balding was definitely the most serious concern. In the end, his family opted for new eye, bald spot treatment with transplants but not a full recover, and a gentle spa, as well as wound repair.
So he flew to the hospital from Washington state, not too long a flight, and started his treatment with a spa:
Next, he got new eyes. His eyes were originally green – the cataracts were so bad, I couldn’t really tell the original color till I took out his eyes and looked on the backside of them. Here he is with vision restored to 20/20:
Next were transplants…. Perfect matches for striped fur are impossible without a donor (and sometimes even donors aren’t perfect). I’ve done transplants where we use the background fur color, and add black stripes for tigers (you’ve seen some of those here) but Meow’s stripes weren’t black. Sometimes we just use a solid close to one of the stripe colors in that case, and that was an option… and actually the plan for Meow. But then I had two fabrics which matched his two stripe colors really closely:
I talked with his family about it, and we agreed to mix the colors in the transplants… a little of one, a little of the other. But keep in mind, stripes on animals aren’t exact lines, so this wasn’t a case of making a fabric by sewing strips on a machine, and then using the new fabric. Each piece was chose, and shaped for the area where the bald spot was, and sewn in separately. It was more complicated than this surgery usually is, but also kind of meditative. 🙂
So… here is Meow all better! (He did get a heart btw, I just didn’t photo it)
His family was thrilled too. “He looks great!” they wrote. And Meow flew north and home.
So Beary is over 50 years old. His person wrote asking about “ a new coat, stuffing, facial features and attire”. Here are some of his diagnosis photos:
As you can see, he had many wounds, and many layers. His person also sent a photo of a younger Beary (not from his youngest days, but more middle age):
As you can see, he once sort of had a built in vest, with white pom poms, and he had red in his ears, and it looks like short fur. We agreed together that the best treatment for Beary would be to strip him down to his original layer, give him a spa, and then recover him in new fabric, giving him a new nose and eyes and pom poms. Here’s Beary when he arrived at the hospital (he flew cross country from NYC):
As you can see, he had lots of interesting layers. 🙂 I began removing the layers:
And eventually we got down to his base:
As you can see, he’s been well loved! His stuffing came out and he got a bubble bath:
Once dry, he got restuffed with a heart of original stuffing included:
The heart was made with some of his older layers of fabric, too. Next step was choosing a new white fur (we had agreed a red velvet would be good for his red bits). We had 5 options, and his person chose a short fur.
Soon Beary was recovered and we were going through options. Here he is with the nose she eventually chose, and a button we were considering instead of pom poms:
But we went for the pom poms, and felt eyes. Originally we tried black eyes with white pupils:
Then just black:
But eventually we reversed it and went for white eyes with a black pupil. They were all felt to match his original ones.
And here he is all better, and ready to fly home:
You can see the white felt blended into his fur once it was all sewn together, but it gave his eyes a bit of depth.
Beary flew home to NYC, through the December cold and package crush (patients always take longer to fly in December because all the shippers are so busy). He made it home in 4 days, which was fairly good. His person wrote:
Dear Beth, I cannot tell you how thrilled I am with Beary and am so happy to have him back! He looks absolutely amazing, and you are clearly a miracle worker. Every detail was administered with such care and craftsmanship, and I am so very grateful for the care you put into reviving him. He will be cherished for many years to come!
I know it’s been a bit since I wrote…. everything is fine here and I hope it is with all of you. May was just been a very busy month in the hospital – so busy that I am now scheduling July patients, because it leaked into June. But Isaac’s story has been sitting in my head, waiting to be told since he went home earlier this month, so here it is, a bit of happiness to share with all of you. 🙂
Isaac’s person first wrote back in December. She had been referred to the hospital by a previous patient:
My bunny, Isaac, has been with me for as long as I can remember. I would love to get him fixed up to pass on to my daughter.
Lots of my patients come in when they are getting ready to go to another generation. I usually suggest a spa, to get them spruced up, and any wound repair that is required. Here are Isaac’s diagnostic photos:
As you can see, he was in pretty good shape. Fluffing up his fur, supplemental stuffing, and then repairing the bald spot on his tail and recovering his pawpads would have him spruced up and ready for a new generation of hugs.
He waited a bit to come to the hospital, arriving in mid-May. He came with special fabric to be used for his heart, and another fabric specifically for his pawpads. We would find fur to recover his tail in the hospital’s resources. Here’s Isaac in his bubble bath:
Looking a little less matted already! And here’s his heart being made and installed using the purple fabric his person sent:
Next up was choosing fur for his cotton tail, and I had just the right one to be a close color match and nice and fluffy (if you look closely, you can see his heart peaking out at the bottom of his spine there):
Surgery proceeded with the recovered tail, and recovered pawpads. His person had sent a lovely navy faux suede for his paws, and soon Isaac was ready to go home!
Isaac flew home to Alabama and arrived safely at the beginning of this month. His person wrote:
The first hug when I took him out of the box was just the greatest thing ever. Thank you so very much!
It’s been a while since I’ve posted about a jigsaw puzzle patient, and I just sent one home, so I thought I’d share his story today. 🙂
Mr Theodore E. Bear, known as Teddy to his friends, was not feeling well. Teddy’s person wrote:
When I was born, my father bought me my first (and only) teddy bear. That was 66 years ago. Sadly, our new pup tore it up. I cannot describe my heart break. I lost my dad in 1999 and this was the only personal thing I had left from him.
Could I please get an estimate on fixing him?
I would so appreciate your efforts.
This is the photo she sent of her Teddy:
She actually had both eyes, and the tears were pretty clean, but Teddy had lost a significant percentage of his head and front body. We agreed on a treatment plan to include a spa (thereby removing Puppy saliva), and he flew to the hospital from Arizona.
When patients are in pieces like this, spa photos can be a bit… disturbing, so I don’t send them. Suffice it to say that given his age, the surviving cream and brown parts needed to be separated to be safely cleaned, and I kept his googly eyes out of the water.
Once he was dry, surgery proceeded. It’s a bit complicated when you aren’t sure what his original shape was. I sent this photo I found online to ask if it perhaps looked like him:
It was so close, his person thought it WAS him at first! But there were issues I could see with this sample. For instance, when teddy arrived one eye was on cream fur. So using this as a guide, but keeping that in mind, I went about putting him back together. There’s a fur whose reverse side is a really close match for older, well loved bears like him, and I used that for the darker brown areas. For the missing cream areas (which were really more of a yellow) I used a smooth minky fur.
Here was the first set of photos of Teddy:
Well, it turned out that despite the eyes being on yellow cream on arrival, his person remembered them on brown. That memory is what is important, so that part of his face needed to be adjusted. Also, the head and muzzle were a little too big, as was the nose… but his body was looking good!
Here’s the next set of photos (without the nose on… it’d go on once we got the muzzle size/shape right).
That was right! And then there was the new nose, which was embroidered:
All set! His person wrote:
Love it!
Thank you!
He’s perfect!
Oh, and lest you think I forgot his heart of original stuffing, he did get it, it just goes in at a different time with jigsaw animals that need lots of adjustment. Here it is being made and installed:
Teddy made it home safe and sound. His person wrote: Thank you so much! You saved him and a huge piece of my heart! Teddy is HOME! He’s wonderful and I so appreciate your hard work!
This will be a longer post, because it’s all about the details, and there was a lot of going back and forth with photos and emails to get Stripes and his stripes just right. So be sure you’re comfy when you sit down to read it. 🙂
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Stripes person first wrote to me back in December about her tiger, Stripes, and his companion RedEye the snake. Both were starting to feel their age, but as she said,
“ As you can see Stripes is in the most need of repairs. Personally, I’m guessing that a full recovering is needed, but I’m certainly no expert and will follow your advice. Here are some pics which show Stripes fur disappearing and soon he will be bald. Amazingly he has no damage that I can find. His ears need some stuffing, but they have never been tall, firm standing Teddy Bear ears.”
Here are the diagnosis photos she sent:
As you can see, his belly section was pretty good, but his furry parts were wearing and fading. His person really wanted his fur recovered, in an orangier rather than tanner fur, and she opted for him to have a spa too.
Here he is in his bubble bath:
Once he was dry, he got restuffed and of course, got a heart with a bit of his original stuffing. Here’s his heart being made:
Then it was time to choose furs. As some of you know who’ve been reading for a while, usually with tigers we use a solid fur of the preferred background color, then add the stripes by hand afterwards. Here were the best fur options:
His person opted for the orangier, furrier one.
Stripes got recovered, and some smaller wounds on his belly were sewn. Then, it was time for hand striping. I did some basic striping, and then sent photos for feedback:
His person’s first response was:
Beth, you’ve made me cry at work. I’m absolutely over the moon with Stripes new look!!! Holy cats he’s looking beautiful!! You are AMAZING!
But I was asking for striping feedback, and she happily provided it:
The stripes. Thank you for being so conservative. 🙂 I would like to add some more stripes. I’ve included an updated pic that shows where I would like some stripes added.
Tail: Could you put 2 stripes in a ring pattern around the tail? They continue the black spots you started. I also noticed with other Gund tigers that the ring was painted at a slight angle or sprayed as 2 “halves”, not a straight ring that looked like a raccoon’s tail. (pics) I know that there was more black at the tip of the tail, but I don’t think the whole tip was black.
Back Leg: I’ve continued your 3 spots into stripes.
Body: I’ve added 2 stripes, but if you will notice stripe #2 is in the shape of a ‘V”. (I remember this detail as a child) The stripes do NOT have to line up with the fabric underneath. They didn’t before. 😀
Face: I’ve added a short stripe above Stripes’ right eye. This detail always gave him a slight serious look without being mean. (not a lot of slant to the line, if any) I have always loved this detail about him. And I’ve elongated the stripe on his forhead.
Beth, I’m pretty sure we will be adding some more stripes to the back, especially his head but I thought we might tackle this bit first.
She closed with:
Again, I just absolutely can’t thank you enough for your beautiful and loving work on my best friend. I have been showing people the before and after pics for the last 5 hours. I’m so happy!!!
So back to drawing stripes on Stripes I went. Here are the next batch of photos:
Stripes person was thrilled:
Stripes looks spectacular!! I mean he is just awesome with the stripes that you’ve filled out.
She wanted just one more stripe. She sent a photo, but it was in another format, so I won’t put it here, but she also described what she wanted very well:
So I just have 1 more stripe for you. If you look at my pic, you will see that I’ve drawn a line over the small black dot that is on his forehead. In the last pic you sent me you can still see that it’s just a spot and not a stripe. Could you lengthen that spot into a stripe for me?
Please note the position. When you are seated facing Stripes, this stripe includes/starts at the black spot and runs towards the right. You have a pretty stripe that’s higher on the head already placed on the left so this one goes off to the right and is the same length as that one.
Adjustment made, I sent another photo (you can see the printout with her line instruction next to him):
Her response:
Perfection Achieved! I’m so so happy!!!! How many exclamation points can I put in an email to show you how perfect Stripes is!!
So Stripes got packed up and headed home to a grateful human and snake. Here he is at home with his pal, RedEye:
His person was soooo happy! She wrote a very long thank you, with a history of Stripes and RedEye, and I don’t want to edit it, so I’m copying it entirely here for you to read. But you can skip it if you want and just know she was happy!
Hi Beth,
Sit back and relax. This may be a little bit of a long happy read. 😀 Please feel free to use any content or pics from my emails for your blog.
I waited anxiously for Stripes to arrive. Yes, my husband signed for the box and I couldn’t wait to get home!
And so the moment has arrived. I brought Stripes best friend Redeye in from the bedroom to help me open the package. We open, I close my eyes dig in past the packing peanuts and pull out our best friend. Oh My Goodness! He is beautiful! bright! and colorful! He practically glows! I see his face. Yes, yes! It’s Stripes! I see the same face I’ve gazed into and loved for 50 years. And that’s when the tears start. Crying, mouth open in shock but my husband says he’s never seen me happier. ..After many long years, I can finally cuddle my friend again.
Beth you have given me back something I thought I would never have again. I love Stripes so, but I couldn’t, didn’t dare to pet him or cuddle him. I had to be so gentle, so afraid that I was doing more damage to him. But now all that is over! I can sleep with my buddy by my side. I can take him on vacations again! I’m tearing up just writing this. I can’t express my joy…absolute joy over the work you have done. Stripes looks like a beautiful and bright toy again. Thank you Beth. Thank you so very much.
…And I’ll be sending Redeye to you some time in February. I’ll be sure to email you first to start the process.
And here’s a little history about Stripes. Stripes was a Christmas present in 1969. I have always loved tigers and I was in deep love the moment I saw him. He has enjoyed play tea parties with me, and watched drive-in movies sitting in the back window. He has looked over the candy hauls that I collected during Halloween and been in a beautiful oak tree during the crisp dry autumn. (Carefully placed on a towel, but he needed to experience a tree. He is a tiger after all.) He has been with me in Japan for a year and traveled all over the US northwest looking out of a train window. And he has done all these things with Redeye by his side.
–But let’s face the facts, in the last few years my friend was disappearing before my eyes. There was good fortune that his seams were okay but the fur was coming off. His stripes were completely gone in areas. He was looking more yellow everywhere. And I dared only to pat him. That’s when I began to search for help to restore my friend and so I found Realms of Gold on the internet.
Beth has been wonderful, corresponding with emails and working out details by sending pictures back and forth. She listened to my input and was absolutely amazing at applying the stripes in the right places. We actually discussed exactly where to put them. 😀 I trust Beth’s skills so much that I will be sending Stripes best friend Redeye along soon. He was amazed and so happy with Stripes look, that he can’t wait to go to Realms of Gold!
Okay Beth, this may be a little serious but I wanted to express my honest feelings, and let you know why this has been so important to me.
With my 2 stuffed animals loosing hair and looking tired a sobering thought occurred to me. If something happened to me, what would happen to them? We have no children to give them to. We can’t donate them because being so worn out, no one would take them. And the thought that they might end up in a garbage bin was too much. Of course for me, my goal was to pet, play and enjoy them again. That goes without saying. But now, seeing Stripes beautiful bright colors, I am happy and secure in knowing that years from now, I can donate or will him to a children’s home where he will continue to be loved. (I have several friends who grew up in orphanages and we think it’s a wonderful idea.)
Thank you so much Beth!!!!!!
I don’t know about all of you, but that made me smile all day. 🙂
The second in the trio of cloth bodied bunnies is Rosey (who was actually the last to arrive at the hospital). Rosey’s body wasn’t original. It had been replaced in the past (years ago) but now she needed another makeover. As you know, I don’t usually remove existing parts, so we (her family and I) agreed to recover her this time (after a quick spa to clean her up).
Here’s Rosey’s diagnosis photos:
She started with a spa, just like Daisy:
But then her people needed to choose a fabric. The yellow wasn’t original, and they weren’t sure what was, so I sent a wide selection of patterned options in a similar texture for them to choose from:
They chose the blue calico at the top of the center photo, and recovering commenced. Once her clothes were set, a question arose. Should we recover her pawpads or leave them as a memory of her last wardrobe:
The decision was recovering and that was next. Then she got her heart (old stuffing, new fabric):
And finally, she was closed up, plump and happy and ready to fly home:
Heartbreaker was a well loved hippo. He once had a silk tie with white hearts, but the hearts faded. His eyes once gazed on her person with all the love in the world, but now their gaze was imagined. He lost a bit of tail somewhere along the way, along with all the kishkes he lost in hugs. His ears were also worn to nubs. So Heartbreaker was feeling his age, and his person wanted to help him feel better. So she sent me some photos:
I took a look and knew that Heartbreaker would feel much better with a spa, some good stuffing food, and new eyes. I could patch up his tail and treat his other injuries, and I knew just the fabric for a new heart. His person agreed and Heartbreaker flew to California.
He started with a spa, but was a bit shy about bath photos, so the first photos here are his heart going in with a bit of his original stuffing.
Soon, Heartbreaker was feeling better! Clean and happily plump, sight and hearing restored, wounds repaired, and he was sporting a spiffy new tie and collar:
He flew home cross country to Massachusetts and his person wrote:
Heartbreaker has arrived and he looks beautiful. Thank you for giving me a piece of my youth back.
For you dino and Mario fans… May I present Yoshter’s visit to the stuffed animal hospital
Yoshter’s person first wrote in January. He was 20 plus years old and had had many adventures, including travelling, going to college, and some nerve wracking washing machine rides (he won’t do that anymore). But now, he had a few issues that needed more expert assistance. Here are his diagnosis photos:
As you can see, he had some fading, and stuffing compression. His spine scales were felt and had flopped and suffered from pilling. And he once had mechanics inside, which no longer worked, so he and his person wanted the velcro removed and his white chest fabric extended so he could have a full belly and tail.
An appointment was made for surgery, and a bed reserved for Yoshter’s arrival in April. First step in treatment upon arrival was a spa to see if we could help with his color fade. I don’t redye patients, but lots of times the spa does brighten them up. Here’s Yoshter in his bubble bath:
Once he had dried (I don’t show drying because honestly, fully deflated stuffed animals sitting on towels under skylights is not attractive, and can be a bit traumatizing)… his velcro came out and he got stuffed to his fullest potential so I could figure out how far to extend his belly, then got a heart with a bit of his original stuffing. Green of course! To match his skin. 🙂
For his belly/tail extension, there was really only one fabric which felt right, so surgery proceeded once it was approved. Here’s his tail:
And here he is with new scales… can you spot my mistake?
So the problem was… Yoshter had too many scales! Fortunately, removing one and redistributing the others was a fairly straightforward surgery.
Here he is, all better and ready to fly home to Michigan:
His person wrote:
AAAH he looks wonderful!!
And once he was home there was one more email. His person wrote:
HE’S HOME!! Oh goodness, I just had the worst day at work and coming home to find him waiting for me and getting to hug him was exactly what I needed. He looks even better in person than in the photos!! So much healthier than he was before, and the new tail fabric is so soft!! Thank you so much for helping him!
This is a story I thought I had told… I had written that I told it, but apparently I didn’t, because I can’t find it! But if I did and you know the tail, you can scroll to the end for the latest updates which I got from Flag’s person this week. 🙂
Flag the deer was relatively young, under a year, when his person first wrote in 2015. He was a deer with bendable limbs, and one broke! Here is that first diagnosis photo:
His family was in Florida, a very long trip to California for a lone deer, so they opted to have his leg fixed locally. Zip forward 3 years and Flag had had more adventures, and new injuries! Here is the next photo I received:
This time they opted to send him cross country for a full bone transplant. He came with a donor (Fig Newton) who would go home as a more traditional, not bendable) stuffed animal.
Now this may be a bit much for some, so warning… below are the bones removed!
Transplant was successful and both patients headed home in the fall of 2018:
And now, after another three years, Flag’s family reached out again, just to check in. Flag managed to have some fun and adventures, even given the travel restrictions of the last few years! Here are some of his latest adventures:
Today I thought I’d share Celeste’s tale. She visited the hospital over the summer. Once upon a time, she was gifted to a baby girl, but after several decades, Celeste had lost her weight and her clothes and was popping seams all over. She was in danger even from the gentlest of hugs! Here are a couple of her many diagnosis photos:
Treatment involved many steps…
Step 1: a spa. You’ve all seen this, and it was important not only because of her stuffing and fur compression, but to determine her natural color for any transplants. Here she is in her bubble bath:
Of course when she was restuffed, she got a heart of her original stuffing, and it was gray as suited an elephant:
Step 2: Recover her footpads, repair her seams and get her chubbiness right. Here she is after seam repair and foot recovering and in her first chubbiness photo:
Her person wrote “She is looking fabulous!”
We ended up adding a bit more stuffing to plump her up.
Step 3: New velour tusks and a crown! If you know her story, or if you just wondered about the glue ring on her head, you may have seen this step coming:
The crown isn’t attached here, because her person was deciding between velour and felt. Her person wrote “Fabulous!! Love the crown!” She went for the velour. 🙂
Step 4: New clothes! Here she is all better and fashionably attired in clothes like she once had (or like you may’ve seen in her books):
Her person wrote: “Ohhh Celeste looks amazing!”
So she flew home — not far, just another part of CA. And a few days later her person wrote: “Received my beautiful Celeste juat now. Thank you so much for restoring her”
