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Stripes the 50 year old tiger

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.

1. 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.
2. Back Leg:   I’ve continued your 3 spots into stripes.
3. 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.  😀
4. 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. 🙂

Rosey the Bunny

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:

She flew home to her family’s happy arms!

Heartbreaker the Hippo

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!

And here’s the photo of him happily at home:

Flag the deer’s visit to the stuffed animal hospital

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:

Celeste the elephant visits the stuffed animal hospital for cleaning, repair, and a new wardrobe

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”

U-Chan the pink bunny

U-Chan’s person’s mom wrote:

“Hello I am interested in your services for repairing my daughter’s #1 love – her bunny.”

I’m sure many of you could empathize with that description of a stuffed animal! And the bunny was very well hugged indeed. Here is her diagnosis photo:

There were many options for her repairs… just repairing holes, lining her, recovering all or part of her, to clean or not to clean. Her family decided to recover her pink areas (with the most balding and holes) in new fabric but keep her white areas original, just stitching any injuries there. And she would get a full spa to spruce her up as well.

Here she is in her bubble bath (patients always have a bath first, if they will get one at all, because then all fur is matched to clean and fluffed fur):

Then it was time to choose fur. There were many shades of pink and lengths of fur. Her family was leaning toward a shorter furry fleece, closer in length to her white fur, but wasn’t sure. So I recovered one back panel in it and sent a photo for approval:

Approved! surgery would proceed. 🙂

Here’s here heart being made and installed with a bit of her original stuffing:

And here she is all better, feeling like a new rabbit, but still her original self. All her original pink was under new fur, and her original white was all visible:

Looks great! wrote her family. So U-Chan flew home to Minnesota ready for more hugs and adventures. 🙂

The White Elephant (Blue Teddy’s friend)

So Blue Teddy made it home and in her same email where she was so happy with arrival, his person wrote:

“Given the beautiful work on him, I am really hoping you will consider the same makeover /full recover on the white elephant. I will upload some pics of him shortly so that you can assess? I am wondering if we couldn’t find a similar fabric for him in natural cream.”

Here are the elephant’s diagnosis photos (including one of him next to the healthy Blue Teddy):

The elephant was getting fully recovered in a similar faux sheepskin, but with faux suede inner ears.

Now recovering was fairly straightforward, but ear reattachment, not so much. Should the suede part be in or out? Should the ears dangle or be closer to his head? Here are some of the option photos:

(yes, that’s my teddy bear, the mascot of my site, sticking his head into the last photo :-)).

Decision? Gray underneath, hanging down.

Finally, the White Elephant was healthy and ready to fly home:

Home cross country to MA he flew, where Blue Teddy was waiting. Here is their reunion photo:

Their person wrote:

“Just arrived this morning, none the worse for his long journey…….and looking GORGEOUS!!!!! You have done an outstanding job with these two….beautifully mended and without losing their old ‘personalities’…. I can’t believe I waited 30 years to have them seen to…..but frankly am only too happy that I did wait….. and found Realms of Gold…..

Thank you, thank you for your lovely work!”

Blue Teddy in Distress…

Blue Teddy is his person’s favorite bear. At 70 plus years old though, he was showing his age pretty severely. Here are a couple of his diagnosis photos:

Not only was he deflating, and having joint issues, but his fabric was disintegrating in place due to age and drying, and as you can see, he was no longer blue. While initially the plan was a spa, new joints, and wound repair, in person examination of his fabric proved he really needed all new fur, and his original fur was too fragile to clean so “the full works” recover it was. Finding blue lamb style fur (that funky texture he has), took a bit, but eventually we found a good match.

Here are his initial recover photos, with his facial features reembroidered, fully recovered, and joints repaired. Those are original eyes, just different lighting:

His nose needed some tweaking, and here it is in the final form:

“Well done!!!! He looks so huggable!” said his person.

Blue Teddy headed home, but already his person was thinking of sending his friend, White Elephant, for similar treatment.

BTW, when Blue Teddy arrived home, his person wrote:

“Delighted to say that Blue Teddy arrived home today in his splendid new suit…and he looks fantastic! What is particularly delightful is that you restored his face back to his original personality. I can’t believe how good he looks!!!!!!”

A penguin bath and plump: Tuxedo Sam

Tuxedo Sam’s person is one of you, dear readers! 🙂 They wrote to me earlier this year about Sam:

I was wondering if you had any availability to help me refurbish my best friend, Tuxedo Sam? He’s a Sanrio character that I became enamored with when I was like 13, and one of my best friends from high school (that I still talk to) ended up getting me a Tuxedo Sam plushie that I have slept with every single night for almost a decade. Naturally, he’s very worn-down with that kind of history, and the other day, his ice cream cone that is normally sewn onto his left flipper came undone. In addition, his fabric is VERY dirty, and his beak & tail that used to stick out are basically caved-in now.

Hereis one of his diagnosis photos, so you can see:

Sam (or Tuxedo or Tuxedo Sam) came in last month and got right in the spa. As a penguin, he had a grand old time in the bubble bath:

It’s hard to see there, but he really did get nice and clean! Next up, restuffing. To help his beak and tail stand out, he got slightly denser stuffing there, which was sewn in place inside. Then he got traditional stuffing elsewhere, and of course, a bit of original stuffing was preserved in a heart in his chest (this is also a preview of how clean he got!):

That’s a very special heart, because Tuxedo’s person had sent along their own childhood blanket for the fabric. 🙂

Next up, repairs. We were recovering the ribbon on Sam’s hat with new ribbon, and replacing the ribbon that stood out. And even though his bow got nice and clean, his person wanted a new one that didn’t split at the edges, and was a bit squarer. We upgraded both a bit, with gold edging on the ribbon and a velour bow. Here he is getting his chubbiness checked:

There was one small problem… his ice cream cone was on the wrong flipper! A quick flip, closing up his final seam, and he was ready to fly home:

Tuxedo Sam arrived home safely Saturday and his person wrote last night:

Hi Beth, OMG Thank you so so so much for all of your hard work on my baby boy!!! He looks ten years younger LOL. My parents and I got a kick out of the patient chart that he came with, specifically the discharge instructions about his weight gain from the stuffing diet LOL.. He looks so much younger and happier.

And they sent a photo of the happy former patient back home with his two Tuxedo Sam siblings: