realmsofgold

Psychedelic Dragon to brighten your day

This dragon came to the stuffed animal hospital for repair and cleaning.  He’s rainbow bright and a happy story with a great transformation. 🙂

The dragon’s person first called, then wrote:

Hi!  

I talked with Beth yesterday about my 50 year old psychedelic dragon.  I have enclosed pictures, and I hope you can help restore him.  The main problems I see are:

1. His neck is broken and now flops around.
2. He used to have red, orange, and yellow flames coming out of his mouth, but these were pulled out by my daughter about 15 years ago.
3. His eyes need repainting.
4. He used to have pieces of felt under the plastic eyes that formed “eyelashes”.
5. His tail is now too floppy.
6. Needs cleaning.

Let me know what you think.  Also, my Dragon is fully covered by his PPO health insurance, so hospitalization won’t be an issue !!  Thank you for your time.

Well, after a checkup, it was decided that the dragon would fly up from SoCal for a spa and some surgery.  Here he is on arrival at the hospital:

As you can see, his internal structure broke so he couldn’t hold up his head or out his tail.  His eyes had lost both their lashes, and their blood vessels and parts of their pupils.  His spine scales were down to nubs. And he’d lost his fire breathing skills!

First step was unstuffing.  This also involved removing the old spine scales and internal wires that were supposed to hold his neck up.  Then a bubble bath:

His nostrils were stubborn.  They had seen too much smoke and wouldn’t clean, so we ended up replacing them too.

Next was restuffing with new polyfiber stuffing.  His old stuffing was a disintegrating combination of fluff and styrofoam.  Still, some went in a heart (with matching rainbow hearts) to be reinstalled:

Next his spine scale frame went on before the heart went in (the spine scales aren’t cut out yet):

(you can see one of my jigsaws in the background – they’re great practice for reassembling patients that have been attacked by pets). 🙂

Then I worked on his eyelashes – remember this is before:

And this is after:

Then his eyes themselves were taken care of:

And he got his fire breathing back:

Some new sparkly white nostrils and he was feeling himself again:

Who can resist that face?  Not me!

He needed an extra long box to fly home, given his now straight neck and tail, and I had a perfect one just for him:

The Psychedelic Dragon flew home.  He made it home safely and his person wrote:

  Dragon looks unbelievable!   You did a wonderful job repairing him, and I love how your ideas worked out.  I cannot express in words how pleased I am.  Thanks for bringing a part of my past back to life!  Only the best for you and your business in the future.

There once was a teddy bear…

There once was a bear from Oakland, who’d lost his arms and his nose in the past. He flew across the Bay to have his wounds repaired.

Here’s Teddy on arrival at the teddy bear repair hospital:

Not only was his nose missing, but he originally had a little white muzzle as well.  Here is the baby photo his person sent:

So we started with a little spa:

Then restuffed him adding new shoulder and neck joints.  Of course he got a heart with a bit of his original stuffing, too:

Then the next step was reconstructing his white muzzle, giving him a new nose and mouth. 

A bit of a fluff and he was ready to fly home.

He took the short flight across the Bay and his person wrote:

Brown bear is happily reunited with his 40+ year old childhood friend Nicolino (an ancestor of the teletubbies). Being a globe trotter and world citizen he enjoyed spending time at the hospital with other stuffed animals from around the world.
Since he came back he has been raving about the spa and is trying to convince Nicolino to get one in the near future!
Thank you again for your loving care!

And here he is with his buddy, Nicolino:

Chubby aka Chubbs (the cow)

Chubby’s an avid cycler.  She rides far and wide with her human family. They wrote:

Our cow, Chubby (full name: Chubby Cow Bra – named after her first mountain bike ride in 2006; the Chupacabra Race), has spent the last 11 years riding mountain bikes with my wife and me.  (She usually rides on my back.)  She had a nose job a few years ago, but now her back and her horns are getting extremely worn. 

Can you do this sort of operation?  How long do you think she would be in the hospital?  What’s the best way to get her there? Do you have an estimate for the operation (I don’t think she’s covered under my medical insurance)?

We agreed the best treatment would be a spa, followed by lining of the most worn areas on her back and forehead, wound stitching, and recovering her horns.  Here she is on arrival at the spa:

We started her with a spa to remove road dirt:

Then she got lining with new stuffing and a heart (pink and white like her)… you can see how much better her back is already:

I double checked her horn fabric.  Her family had sent the same fabric used on her nose, but her nose had faded a lot in the sun:

She had a birthday while she was here, and got a card in the mail:

Horn fabric approved, her horns were recovered and her chubbiness checked:

A bit too chubby – too much stuffing flavored birthday cake – she went on a crash diet so she could be just right to fly home:

Chubby arrived home yesterday.  Her family wrote:

Thanks again, Dr Beth.  Chubby just got in, and she looks fantastic.  She’s looking forward to seeing all her old friends and going on a bike ride on Saturday.

An update from Chubby received this morning:

Hi Dr Beth!

The Boy let me use his phone so I could tell you I’m fine. I’m even back to mountain biking with The Girl and The Boy!
Thanks again for the spa and skin graft.
The Boy noticed I also put on some weight, which means I can sit up straighter now.
I hope all of your other spa guests are doing welll.
Feel free to tell others about my visit!  I really loved my bath!

– Chubby Cow

and here is the photo she sent:

George the Bunny

George was in the hospital for over a month.  He is a very little blue bunny, maybe 5 inches tall when he’s sitting.  He is in his thirties and was a victim, as his person said, of “an extreme dog mauling”.  This is what George looked like when he arrived at the hospital:

and when I opened his bag, and separated George from the stuffing, this was what I found:

Good thing I like jigsaw puzzles!  The first step was to clean George’s parts, so when he went home, he wouldn’t be as attractive to the dog:

Here he is in the spa:

He’s really in there!

Once George was dry, I started putting him together.  He originally had pink checked lining for his ears and bottom feet, and a worn area on his chest that looked like a heart.  So I had ordered new pink checks for him, and we had agreed to use white fur for the heart.  Here is George when he first started to come together.  (If you look closely, you can see one of the jigsaw puzzles I was working on in the top left corner.)

The next step was to fill in George’s blanks (fur transplants), order him new eyes, and start restuffing him.  I ordered eyes from Canada and China for George.  Here were some of the options:

 Here are the ones his person chose first going in:

Next was the filling.  George initially had a little gray bag of walnut shells in his tush (probably what attracted the dog).  So first I made him a new walnut bag. 

And here it is going in:

Next George got a little heart with a bit of his original stuffing:

Then he got put back together, had his new eyes adjusted, and even got a new nose. The goal was to keep as much of George’s original fur and skin visible as possible, but to make him healthy and sturdy enough to keep his person comfy at night and bring pleasant dreams. Here he is waiting for his flight home:

He has some scars, but he sure did earn them!  And he’s all set for decades more hugs!

Kitty’s Burns

Stuffed animals and dolls get burnt in many ways. Some are in fires. Some get burnt in the dryer, or with a blow dryer, in an attempt to dry them after a wash. But another common burn is from a lightbulb. Sometimes, you catch the burn early, so there’s just a touch of discoloration. This happened to one of my teddy bears when I was in college… he fell off the bed onto a light. But I caught him pretty quick. Here he is today with some of his friends: Eeyore, a quoll, and a quokka:

‘and here’s his burn. It’s on the back of his leg, and it still feels like the rest of his fur, so ‘and here’s his burn. It’s on the back of his leg, and it still feels like the rest of his fur, so I’ve opted to leave it as is. Any transplant wouldn’t match perfectly, and would be pretty invasive surgery. He earned his scar and he’s proud of it. 🙂

But sometimes, patients get really burnt by lightbulbs. As in charred, third degree burns. And that’s what happened to Kitty. She was sitting on a light that was accidentally turned on and no one noticed till it was too late! Here is her diagnosis photo:

The (nice?) round burn went all the way around to her backside, but was quite localized. Burning had not only changed her fur color, it was charred, the fur melted, and so did some of the stuffing underneath. For this type of burn, the treatment is to excise the burnt fur and stuffing, and then give the patient new fur and stuffing as needed to restore the damaged areas. This is different from the usual fur transplants for bald spots, which go over surviving skin. Kitty’s family decided she would get a spa too. She arrived and after stuffingectomy, started her bubble bath:

She got new stuffing, with a heart of original, unburnt stuffing:

And then she had surgery to treat the burn itself. Here she is all better and ready to fly home:

It’s pretty hard to see the new fur, which was great! And it will blend even more as she’s hugged in her natural environment. Her family wrote “Oh wow! She looks fantastic! 🙂 I just shared photos with my wife, and she’s very happy 🙂 …. couldn’t be more pleased!”

So Kitty flew home for more hugs and adventures… but no more lightbulb seats!

A teddy bear story

 Hi all!  I hope you are all safe and doing well!

This teddy bear is over 30 years old and his person felt he could use some tlc.  Here are the diagnosis photos she sent:

Not too bad, but clearly well loved.  I offered several treatments, from just recovering his missing footpads and stitching his wounds, to transplants for bald spots, lining if the bald spots were acceptable but reinforcement was desired, full recovering, and of course a spa.  His person opted for full recovering and a spa, as well as a new nose and eyes.  A bed was reserved for his hospital arrival.

Teddy arrived and started care with a spa.  It’s always best to clean before other surgeries.  While plushies don’t need to worry about infection, it is better to match furs to cleaned fur, and to be sure any stitching doesn’t tighten surface dirt or keep old stuffing in place.  Here he is in his bubble bath:

He’s a little guy, so the tub was more of a pool for him. 🙂

Next, his person had to choose his new fur.  There were many options:

The first choice was the top one, and surgery proceeded.  Once stuffed and recovered, he needed a heart for a bit of his old stuffing.  Here’s that being made and put in:

Next decision, what fabric to use for his footpads and inner ears.  They had once been a smoother, darker fabric.  I found several nice solids, but I also had one with stars which was an almost perfect match to his original color:

His person loved the stars!  So that’s what we used.  Here he is fully recovered in his chubbiness approval pics.  His spine is open so I can adjust his stuffing….

Chubbiness approved!  Just needed to add his smile back….

And those ribbons were options to replace his old bow.  Again, his person chose my favorite, the sparkly one on the bottom.

Here he is all closed up, ribbon on, ready to fly home cross country:

Sparkling with a glitter ribbon and stars!

His person wrote:

He looks even better than I could have imagined!

The Works for Tiger

As you’ve seen, many patients come to the hospital for cleaning and get a spa. Some come to the hospital with balding, and there are usually three options: transplants just for bald spots, full recover, or, if their human wants to keep the well loved look, lining to reinforce from the inside.

In the case of this small tiger, her person opted for the works: spa, full lining, and transplants for bald spots. Here is her diagnosis photo… you can see why skin strength was a concern:

This is what one of her relatives looked like, much younger:

But the plan was not to make Tiger look brand new. She’d earned her wear, and her person loved her that way. The plan, was to keep her herself, but sturdier so she could still be slept with every night.

She started her treatment with a bubble bath (she would need to get restuffed for the spa anyway, so the added bubbles were just a bonus – plus it meant new fur would be matched to her clean fur):

Next she was fully lined (except her ears) in a soft flannel. Stronger than her skin, but not so thick as to change her feel too much. Here is a very rare image of a fully lined patient from the inside. Most people don’t want to see that for their own animals… and if it makes you a bit squeamish, please just scroll down. Heart photos are next. 🙂

That pouch on her back is her bean bag, which she kept.

Next, she was turned right side out and restuffed, including a heart of original stuffing. Here’s her heart being made and installed:

Next it was time to choose new fur. Transplant fabric would be a solid, and then new stripes would be drawn on by hand afterwards. Here were the fur options for striped areas:

Note all the length options too.

Her person chose the shorter length, browner fur. Her’s tiger with her transplants, but without stripes. This is where we figured out if she was the right chubbiness:

We were also figuring out whether to reembroider her mouth, and if we wanted to treat the balding on pale areas. The pale balding wasn’t structural, so her person opted to leave those as is, but we did give her a new embroidered mouth.

And here’s Tiger restriped, all better and ready to fly home:

Her person wrote:

She looks so wonderful!!!! Thank you so much! Thank you so much for repairing and restoring her, she looks fantastic, and like she isn’t going to fall apart anymore, this means so very much to me.

Three Very Different Winnie the Pooh Bears enjoy spas and have their injuries treated

I see many Winnie the Poohs at the hospital (aka Winnie aka Pooh aka Pooh Bear), as you may guess.  Many look like this, a bit flat and with small wounds, designed to have a removable shirt:

They come for spas:

New hearts and stuffing:

And plumping up so they have a proper belly again:

Sometimes they look like this:

A bit more loved… or as his person said, in more “desperate condition”.

He also had a spa (not everyone does):

As you may’ve noticed, he needed a new nose and there were several options:

His heart had a pooh on it as well as some magic from a heffalump:

And after a bit of arm and smile surgery, soon he was healthy and ready to fly home:

His person wrote “He looks wonderful!”

The final Pooh I’m going to show you today just flew home yesterday.  He is always called Pooh Bear.  He is 14 years old and showed every year of hugs.  

Here are the photos his person’s mom sent for diagnosis:

As you can see, Pooh Bear was a bit flat and a bit gray.  He came in for a spa:

Got new stuffing and a magical Heffalump heart to preserve a bit of his original stuffing:

And finally was clean and plump and fluffy and ready to fly home:

He could even sit on his own!  His people said his chubbiness was perfect and as I said, he flew home yesterday!

An antique teddy bear repair

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about my oldest patient, so I thought I’d share one of them.  Teddy was born in 1927.  BTW, I originally told his story in 2018, now he’s 96!

He had been through a couple generations.  His person was refurbishing his original owner’s chair, and wanted him healthy to enjoy it.  Here’s Teddy’s diagnosis photos:

The plan was to recover Teddy’s pawpads (all four so they would match), give him a spa, stitch any small wounds (like his ear), a new felt toungue and give him a new teddy bear growler.  His current person remembered his teddy bear growler when she was little, but it hadn’t worked in years.  We were keeping his wear, because he’d earned it after 91 years!

Here’s Teddy starting his spa:

Yep, he sunk into the bubbles. 🙂

Teddy had a small heart of original stuffing with a tiny bit of the wood strips from his head.  His new stuffing was all modern polyfiber:

His body had to leave room for a new teddy bear growler.  The old one had hardly any stuffing around it, and was rubbing against his skin on the inside.  The new one (ordered special from Germany) had to share his torso with the heart and some stuffing.  Teddy’s teddy bear growler sounds a bit like a lamb, usually making a long “baaaaa” sound, but if you bounce him up and down he goes “ba ba ba ba”.:-)

Here were the first photos of Teddy feeling better:

His person wanted his hand stitching adjusted a bit, and a touch more stuffing in his belly.  Here are the final photos before he went home:

Teddy flew home yesterday to Iowa.  His person wrote:

Thank you for making Teddy a heirloom our family can be proud of for years to come!

So that’s one of the older patients we’ve had (though not the oldest, some were almost 100).  He came in in pretty good shape, and just needed a bit of sprucing.  He was sharing the hospital with some patients who were just a few months old (dog attacks), several in their 20s and 40s, and even a world travelling alpaca. 🙂

George the Monkey (I don’t know how curious he is though)

George went home today and he looked really spiffy.  I asked his person if I could share his story and she said: “Absolutely you can post George’s story!”

As I said above, George is a monkey.  His person called, and then sent photos to show his issues.  As she said, he was “in need of a cleaning, fur mending, re-stuffed where needed (he’s neck has become a bit wobbly) and he also has a small hole in his neck”.  George also had a few small bald spots.  So we created a treatment plan including wound repair, spa, and bald spot treatment. He was keeping his original eyes.  🙂

Here are some of George’s diagnosis photos:

George started with a spa:

I love how he keeps smiling!  His person wrote: “OMG he’s so cute”.

For his heart, I have special Curious George fabric that I used:

Soon he was feeling much better and ready for chubbiness approval:

Response: “He looks perfect!” Chubbiness approved!

Now, like Baby Bunny’s family, George’s person had asked for a hoodie and jeans for George.  We agreed to make his hoodie close up the front (with velcro rather than a zipper) and make it crayon red.  As you may have guessed, sizing his jeans were a bit complicated though, given his monkey hips and skinny legs.  So we gave him wide legged jeans to balance them out.  Here he is sporting just the jeans (note the functional pockets on his backside):

And here he is in his spiffy red velvet hoodie:

“ OMG! So perfect! Thank you :-)” was his person’s response.  Finally he was ready to fly home: