doctorbeth

[doctorbeth]

A White Kitty for Christmas

White Kitty had an unfortunate run in with the family dog. His 10 year old person, who had had him since he was born, devastated by his wounds. He even asked Santa to heal her for Christmas. That was the number one thing on his Christmas list!

Here are the diagnosis photos of White Kitty, as well as a photo of him with the family's warm blooded cat in happier times:

While you can see his head injury, and part of one foot, he was also missing a leg and a lot of stuffing. The plan was to repair her without cleaning or restuffing, to keep him as close to his well loved touch, look, and smell as possible. So, for instance, while his name is White Kitty he is no longer white, so his transplant fur was not white, the better to blend with him now (and in the future).

Here he is all better!

"He is perfect!" his family wrote, and so he flew home to West Virginia.

[doctorbeth]

Secondary Hospital for Toucan and Hippo

Sometimes, animals need to go to a higher level hospital, kind of like visiting the Mayo Clinic after having first been treated at the local community hospital. When the toucan's person first wrote to me, he was looking for that higher level hospital.

Toucan was born in 1965. His person got him by sending in box tops from Fruit Loops Cereal. Earlier this year, he decided that Toucan, while still furry, really needed a bath, and he sent him, along with his friend hippo, to a hospital (not mine). When they came back, they were clean, but their colors were faded, their fur was gone, and their facial features (as well as hippo's ears and tail) had all been replaced. Their person was, needless to say, not happy.

Here is the diagnosis photo of Toucan that he sent:

Toucan was supposed to be two shades of yellow as well as blue and purple! His man was ok, with the new eyes, but his beak was malformed (he couldn't get small bugs with that rounded tip) and his tail had a poor patch.

Hippo (who was too shy for diagnosis photos) was similarly pale and unfurry, with the wrong ears, eyes, nostrils, and tail!

The only treatment I can offer for fading and balding is new fur, which I explained to the pair's man. He thought this would be acceptable (especially since it was reversible if he didn't like it, unlike their earlier cleaning), so he sent them in -- I got to be the Mayo Clinic :-)!

We went through a few options for colors and furriness amounts, but eventually figured out the right balance and surgery commenced. Here is the Toucan all better and waiting for some Fruit Loops:

The hippo took a bit longer. While the man had photographs (old original photos from film!) of them younger, the angle on Hippo was not great for his nostrils, and it took a few tries to get them and his eyes just right. But here he is all better too... he's even showing off his new tail!

They flew home (not far, just down to Los Angeles) and their person wrote:

The pair have arrived safe and sound.  They have never looked better.  Thank you so much for your superb craftsmanship.

[doctorbeth]

A Moose from Alaska

Moose was well hugged, like most of my patients. Made of french terry, her fabric had worn to almost see through in addition to holes:

The plan was to keep her insides the same (no spa) but to recover all of her brown in new fabric (her antlers and feet were both in good shape).

So the search began for French terry in a good color and here is where her stay got more complicated. I thought we had a good option, we ordered it, and it wasn't traditional french terry at all!

So we searched some more and placed another order and this time, it was a much better match that Moose's person approved:

It looks different here, but it was actually very close to her inseam shades, and matched her original texture.

Here she is mid surgery, when I got to her muzzle. It had been repaired by her person many years ago and was a bit... misshapen. The question was, did her person want to keep the unique shape or straighten it out a bit since she was having surgery anyway:

The decision was made to plump it back up. Here are her chubbiness approval pics, fully recovered, but without eyes (she hadn't had any on arrival):

A bit of research showed her original eyes were very similar to her nostrils, so they got added in and she was ready to fly home:

Looks great! said her person, so she flew home to snowy Alaska!

[doctorbeth]

Some doll stories part 1: Marigold 1 & 2

I usually tell stories about the stuffed animals at the hospital, but I also take care of cloth dolls. Lots of Raggedy Anns and Andys, and occassionally others. This is a two part miniseries about two pairs of non-raggedy cloth dolls who visited the hospital this year.

First up are Marigold 1 & 2. Here is the original diagnosis photo their person sent:

The original, in pink, was made by their human's great grandmother. The blue one was made by her mother when the pink one got a bit over worn. She was looking to rejuvenate the pair: cleaning, hair, and a new face for the older Marigold. Plus wound repairs and a new pink dress for Marigold 1.

They arrived safe and sound and sound and immediately jumped into the bubble baths:

Then surgery began. Stitching wounds, adding stuffing, figuring out the details for the older Marigold 1's face. An old family photo gave an idea of their original hair color and style, as well as suggesting there were ribbons at their ankles.

Of course, both got hearts of their original stuffing too:

Here they are, all rejuvenated, and Marigold 1 is wearing her new dress and pantaloons:

Happy twins ready for new hugs and adventures!

They flew home to Utah where their person wrote: OMG! They look great!!!

[doctorbeth]

Raider Bear

The Raider Bear's person has been asking me to post his story, and it's finally his turn! I figured the middle of football season was probably a good time for him. :-)

So, Raider Bear's person wrote asking for help with their teddy bear. Here are the diagnosis photos.

As you can see, his fabric was thinning to the point that his person was afraid to clean him... and honestly, I wouldn't recommend putting any bear in the washing machine, but Raider Bear's surface was reaching the point where even hugs could cause damage.

It was important to keep his outside as close to original as possible, so we agreed the best course of treatment would be a spa, and then lining him and stitching his wounds shut to the lining, as well as scar minimization and a bit more touchup.

Here's Raider Bear in his bubble bath:

And here are a couple of photos of him inside out, fully lined (not everyone wants to see that, so I'll leave a few lines blank so you can skip it if you want, then return for the rest of the story):

Next, he was turned rightside out, wounds were repaired, and he was restuffed. Of course he got a small heart with a bit of his original stuffing -- color matched to himself:

Next was chubbiness approval. Here were the first photos of a healthy Raider Bear:

A bit too plump, said his person. So a small stuffingectomy later, here is his next photo shoot:

That works! was the response. So he got closed up and was picked up by his person (another Bay Area resident) the next day.

[doctorbeth]

Kacheek

A lot of the patients who come to the hospital are so worn, that their people opt to recover them (like Pojo a few weeks ago). But sometimes the humans love the well worn look and just want to reinforce their stuffed friend. So then, we line them in new fabric to reinforce them from the inside, and stitch their wounds shut to the lining. This was the case for Kacheek.

Kacheek is tiny! 4x4x1.5 inches. Here are his diagnosis photos:

For lining, stuffing has to come out, which means it needs to be replaced because it won't go back in the same, so usually lining patients have a spa too, since they're already unstuffed.

Kacheek was so small, his bubble bath photo ended up too blurry to share, but he did get a bath! Then he was lined, and got restuffed. Of course, he got a heart of original stuffing too. :-)

You can see his lining peaking through there.

And here he is all better! Fully lined and wounds repaired

You can see the lining shows where he had larger holes, but it is a texture match to his original fabric, and a color match to the original color, so will age to blend very well.

He put his shirt back on before he went home:

His person wrote:

Looks fantastic! I'm happy to see him all better and still smiling like I remember.

Kacheek's family was local, so he got picked up and went home in their arms.

[doctorbeth]

Henry the Penguin

Henry the Penguin came to California for the summer... not a sentence applicable to most penguins, but he didn't mind the warmer temperatures. :-)

Henry's name had an interesting origin. Apparently his human, as a toddler, sounded like she was saying Henry instead of Penguin. In any case, 35 years later Henry was his name, and his leather beak and feet were starting to have some serious issues. Here are his diagnosis photos:

His person was initially less concerned about his feet, more concerned with his beak. I very rarely work with leather, but I did know I had a good piece that should work for Henry, and so we agreed on a treatment plan and he came to the hospital.

Here is the leather I used to reconstruct his beak:

His person also opted to recover his feet. They weren't originally leather, but she did choose a white faux suede for them. When she chose it she said "Fancy, fancy, Mr. Henry-the-Penguin". :-)

Here's Henry the Penguin all better (he arrived with the blue ribbon):

Looking as spiffy as if he was really wearing a tuxedo!

When he got home, Henry's person wrote:

Henry got home safely today. He looks amazing and is getting lots of hugs to aid in his recovery, as prescribed. He would have written you himself, but he is jet-lagged. He might write you once he has recovered from the flights and the surgery.

Thank you so much for repairing my little guy!

And sure enough, the next day Henry himself emailed:

Dear Miss BetH,

THank you for taking sucH good care of me for tHe past few weeks. I was scared to fly because I Haven't flown in over 10 years. And I was scared of surgery even tHougH I Hadn't been able to eat witH my broken beak. THank you for fixing me. I feel mucH better now. My mom's friend says I look "spiffy." I prefer "Handsome," but "spiffy" will do.

THank you again.

Love,

Henry

(Apologies for Henry's punctuation--not having gone past first grade, he thinks that the letter "H" must always be capitalized since it's the first letter of his name. Efforts to break this habit have proved futile.) Henry's person

[doctorbeth]

Putting a teddy back together

This poor teddy bear had had a rough time. His person wrote in her original email:

This adorable teddy bear was given to my 68 year old English husband when he was a little boy. His mother had knit a little shirt for the bear with the monogram 'TC' - which stood for Teddy C (their last name.). My husband and I were going back to England for a visit after too many years, leaving one of our daughters home to take care of our dog. Because we are in So Cal and worried about fires, my husband pre-packed a few boxes with the things that he would want evacuated in case of a fire. Sadly, he put TC in the box with no lid. Our adorable dog thought it was another stuffed toy for her! Much to my daughter's chagrin, she came home to find TC had been mangled! I don't have the heart to let my husband know what happend, so TC has been hiding in a box for almost 2 years while I search for someone to fix him. I came across your info and a lovely story in the LA times about you. I am hopeful that you can work some magic on TC and restore him to something close to his original state!

And these were the diagnosis photos she sent:

He came to the hospital with a much younger buddy to be used as a comparison for shapes and stuffing. No spa photos for TC, because he was only having surgery. He had lost so much already, his family didn't want to touch his remaining stuffing.

So here he is all better, ready to go home and be hugged again:

And here he is with his buddy, two happy bears!

His family said, "He looks great!"

[doctorbeth]

A doll story part 2: Suzy and Suzon

Suzy and Suzon were cloth sisters, like the Marigolds, but not twins. They had aged quite a bit, but their human was content with their aging for the most part. Her big concerns were that they were popping lots of seams, and Suzy had some significant wear to her face. Here are some their diagnosis photos, including one with a friend:

The plan was to stitch their wounds, patch Suzy's head and back injuries, and give them supplemental hair to get them back to the original hair styles they had. Their person knew the patch for Suzy's head would be obvious, but it was a scar she had earned, and it would stabilize her so she didn't continue to walk about with a hole in the head! Their skin was too fragile for cleaning, so they skipped the spa.

Here they are all better:

Their person wrote: I am very happy with the results. :-) They even look happy hahaha.

So the happy pair flew home to Virginia.

[doctorbeth]

Pojo and Mambo's Hospital Visits

Hi All! I'm back with a bunch of new stories, and Pojo's is first. To paraphrase Panic at the Disco:

Here I come

Oh, how it's been so long

I'm so sorry I've been gone I've been busy writing posts for you!

Well, actually I've been busy taking care of stuffed animals, which then leads to stories that lead to posts but, you get the idea. :-)

Anyway... the first pair of patients I'm going to share are relatives (the same style of animal). They came to the hospital nearly four months apart. Pojo is about 2 feet tall, Mombo is closer to 3 feet, but their relationship will be obvious.

Here are Pojo's diagnosis photos:

I've seen some of his relatives in the past, so I knew he was originally an almost velvety fur, and he had red suspenders. Pojo had lived with his human for over 50 years. She wrote:

"As you can see his entire body needs to be replaced and re-stuffed. His plastic parts, if possible, need to be cleaned but if not, I love him the way he is. His pants, arms and head are black, his shirt is yellow and he has red suspenders. Please let me know if you can help him."

Now, as you may have realized by now, I try not to replace actual bodies, rather, we replace the stuffing as part of cleaning (because stuffing does not clean or dry well), and then recover. And that was the plan for Pojo when he arrived in May.

Here he is starting treatment with his bubble bath:

Next up, once he dried, was recovering his fur. A perfect texture match to his original fur isn't possible without a donor, so I sent photos of two options. One was a modern fluffier fur:

And the other was a modern minky fur which is smoother:

His human opted for the minky. So surgery proceeded till the next decision point, what ribbons for his new suspenders:

His human opted for the narrower fur.

Pojo was almost better.... last little bits included putting in his new heart (from the new minky fur) made with a bit of his original stuffing:

And then he was ready to fly home to Illinois:

His human's response? He is beautiful!

But I promised two chimps in this post and the second was here this past month. Mombo's predecessor had been with his person for over 60 years, but his condition was such that his human felt a new Mombo was needed. So he searched the web for a Mombo in better shape. He found one, but it was holding a banana in one hand, and needed stuffing and some seams tightened up. So the human opted to send the new Mombo to me, with the original Mombo's hand! The plan was to spruce up the new Mombo, repair his seams, replace his suspenders, and replace the banana hand with the original Mombo's hand. And here's the New Mombo (Mombo reincarnated?) all better and ready to fly home to Florida (you can see how much bigger he is than Pojo!):

Mombo's person wrote: He looks great n enjoyed the attention.

[doctorbeth]

A happy colorful monster

Have you heard of My Pet Monster? It's a cartoon from 1986, which had one season (also apparently there's a live movie). You can stream it if you like. But for the purposes of this story, the most important fact is that the star was a very colorful smily, monster. And in January of last year, one of the cuddly plush versions was discovered in the back of a closet (so I guess he was a moonlighting as a closet monster?).

In any case, his original person found him, and wanted to gift him to his own daughters, but this monster had clearly had a rough time in the closet. Here is one of his diagnosis photos:

You can see the wound on his chest, and that his teeth are coming out. His feet and hands were vinyl, and had gotten that sticky feel that old vinyl sometimes gets.... and he needed a bath!

It took almost a year, but in December, the monster's family wrote again. Could we schedule treatment and an appointment for him?

Of course! The hospital was pretty full at the beginning of the year (not uncommon) so we scheduled his appointment for early March.

He arrived and the first step was a spa. He's quite large, so he got the large pink tub. :-)

Next he got restuffed, with a heart of original stuffing included ... who knows where his magic is stored, so it's important to keep at least a bit of original stuffing!

For his feet and hands, I can't replicate the printed nails on vinyl, but we didn't really want to do vinyl again anyway for the feel. So his person and I agreed to recover his feet and hands in new black velvet and then give him new nails from felt in the same teal as the originals. Here he is showing off his manicure and pedicure:

And here he is all better... even his fabric surrounding his tusks has been reglued:

and so he flew home to Colorado!

[doctorbeth]

An elderly patient part 2: Bearie

Last week I told you about Poochie the dog, who was in his sixties and came in to be stabilized so his original person could continue to hug him. Today, I'm going to share Bearie's story. Bearie is a 70 year old panda bear, and he was getting ready to go live with his original person's daughter.

Here are Bearie's original diagnosis photos:

Like Poochie's family, Bearie's family wanted to keep some of his original self visible, but since he was eventually going to be loved by a new person, he needed more stabilization, and a bath and new stuffing as well!

There aren't photos of Bearie in the bath... spas for black and white patients of his age are major surgery, because their colors need to be separated for safe cleaning. But I did clean him, and restuff him. Then, he was recovered in new fur on his head, torso, and limbs. This left his original ears and pawpads visible. He kept his original eye, and hand a new nose and mouth embroidered. Rather than replacing his missing eye, he got a removable eye patch. Here he is before we added his new mouth:

And here he is just before he headed home:

[doctorbeth]

A pair of elderly patients: Part 1 Poochie

Poochie the dog is owned by a family among you dear people. He is over 60 years old, about 7 or 8" tall, and very well loved. He's had repairs before to his shoulders, and he'd been wearing a red dress for years to try to protect his skin from further wear.

His person (his original person) wanted to keep him as close to original as possible, but also wanted to stabilize and reinforce him. Here are his original diagnosis photos, sent by another family member:

I'm showing larger versions in the hopes that you can see not only his holes, but the runs where his fabric is see through.

Poochie came to the hospital last month for wound repair and supplemental stuffing... just a touch to protect him on the inside. He wasn't getting a spa, he needed to stay as original as possible. And we were keeping old repairs where possible too. Rather, the treatment for Poochie was to stitch wounds, adding fabric under his runs to take the pressure of stitches, and patches where he had holes. Just enough to stabilize him. He wasn't going on adventures with toddlers anymore, but he wanted to feel safe watching over his family. Here's Poochie all better:

He's sort of like a kintsugi vase with its visible seams, or an older person, whose wrinkles and gray hairs tell their story. Poochie earned every scar and new seam, but he's huggable and lovable specifically for those patches and seams, which are reminders of all the adventures he's had. And now, he can be hugged again and share his memories (and make new ones) with his family in Washington.

[doctorbeth]

A cheerful lavender bear

Bearsy's person's original email included a brief bio of the cheerful lavender bear:

When I was 4 years old my mom bought me this bear that I have loved for the past 18 years. It has travelled to 3 different countries w/ me and I’ve slept with it every night of my life. Bearsy has seen better days. I’ve already sewn up the cheek seams, back of the neck, and back of the head. I’m now noticing more tears on the neck as well as some on her belly. She also has had all the paint on her eyes scratched off my 4 year old me. After years of being hugged her stuffing has deflated a lot. She has some bald patches and what remains of her fur I nuzzle my face on.

Here are the diagnosis photos she sent:

As you can see, Bearsy's applique and smile are very important parts of her, but her fur had worn to almost all backing, and her person was hoping to restore the original texture. So we agreed to recover Bearsy, transplanting the appliques onto the new fabric.

Her person also wanted her to enjoy a spa, and have her vision restored while she was here. It took a couple of months for Bearsy to work up the courage to fly all the way across the country to California, but she did, and she quite enjoyed her bubble bath on arrival:

While she was drying, I ordered special lavender fur for her, and we agreed on her new eyes. Soon, she was soft and fuzzy again with her new fur and ready to be restuffed and of course she got a heart with her original stuffing:

And here she is all better, with her transplanted smile and belly applique, all new fur, and 20/20 vision.

She flew home to Pennsylvania and her person wrote:

Bearsy is home!! Thank you so so much for taking care of her. I can't wait to have many more years of adventures and snuggles with her. Thank you for breathing life back into her.

[doctorbeth]

Get Well Teddy's own trip to the doctor

Teddy belongs to a 3 year old who was very concerned by his run-in with the puppy. Even before her mom wrote to me, the little girl believed Teddy was at the doctor and being well taken care of. She thought Teddy would be quite comfy, because he clearly had been to a doctor before based on his belly band-aid. Here is his diagnosis photo:

And here is what he was supposed to look like:

Clearly, Teddy needed his little head pouch reattached, eye socket repairs with new fur, and two new eyes (they had his original eyes but they were too damaged to reinstall). As time is of the essence particularly when a three year old is involved, we did not schedule Teddy for a spa, just surgery.

So... he came to the hospital and I had near perfect fabric match for his eye sockets. Coloring his new eyes took a little time (they need to dry thoroughly before being installed and as it was rainy here, it took a little longer), but within the week he was ready to fly home. Here he is, just before he flew home to MN:

His person's mom wrote:

Oh my goodness, thank you!!!!! We will have one for pleased little girl.

and when he made it home, the family wrote:

    I wanted to thank you for restoring our F’s teddy bear, I could barely get her to bed last night because she couldn’t stop hugging him & talking to him. You did excellent work & it brought a lot of joy! Cheers

[doctorbeth]

Horsey's dress

Horsey was in pretty good shape, except for her dress, which was her body, which wasn't as sturdy as her horse skin! Here are her diagnosis photos:

You can see where she had past surgery around her neck. Her family wanted her to get a spa (she was definitely losing some stuffing muscle tone in her legs and shoulders) and to have her dress redone.

She came to the hospital with a little unicorn buddy (Pom Pom) and a very decorated box. She also came with pre-selected fabric for her new dress.

Here she is in her bubble bath:

The plan was to recover the body of her dress, but replace the skirt, so I used a bit of the original skirt fabric, and a bit of the new fabric, to make the heart with a bit of her original stuffing:

And here she is feeling much better. These are chubbiness approval photos (hence the belly poke... there's also an open seam under her skirt):

And here she is all better waiting to fly home with PomPom:

Her young person's response "I love it!"

[doctorbeth]

A Muttsy aka Mutsy story

It's been a little while since I told a story about a Gund Muttsy (spellings may vary). There are a lot of them out there, each with there own story, and well loved by their person.

Here's an image of a vintage one:

Of course, by the time they get to me, the leather has worn through on their paws, or the fur has compressed, or they're balding. They're pretty thin to begin with and they get really skinny as they're hugged over the years as well.

The most recent Mutsy to visit the hospital came from New York and had an interesting balding pattern. Here are his diagnosis photos:

His footpads were surviving quite well, and he has that one inner leg that's in great shape (there's also healthy fur inside an ear) but most of him was very bald. It was important to keep as much original as possible, including the well loved eyes and nose, but to treat the balding so he could continue to go on adventures with his 8 year old human. There were concerns that he'd be too different (they didn't want him to look new) so while the plan was to recover him everywhere he was bald and give him new stuffing, I agreed to send photos after the first new fur was on for approval. If they didn't like it, I'd take it off, no harm, no foul.

There were several fur options:

I also sent swatches so they could feel the fabrics. They chose a furry fleece because it was a very good color match, and visually in between his surviving long fur and his bald skin.

Meanwhile, he got restuffed with his heart of original fabric:

Here is the first "ok to continue?" photo:

That's all one panel of fabric. The answer was "Looks good!" so surgery proceeded.

And here he is all better, ready to fly home:

His family wrote:

"B and I were so impressed with Mutsy’s restoration. Musty hasn’t been put down since he arrived home. (By B or me)

Thank you again for an amazing fix."