#and as my tongue-in-cheek title implies also awesome for bringing into stressful situations!

[hartwitch]

Emotional Support Poppet 🧸

When I’m away from home one of the hardest things for me to deal with is missing my cats, Calcifer and Ponyo. They are a huge source of strength and comfort for me, and I honestly can’t bear being separated from them. But shit happens, so here is a way I’ve devised to help me cope.

The concept of poppets is as ancient as the hills, and using stuffies as fetishes (inviting spirits to inhabit the plush vessel) is a method often employed in spirit work. And of course we are all familiar with the concept of familiars (though your pet does not have to be your familiar for this to work! Neither of my cats are familiars, just wonderful friends)!

The basis for this working is a stuffed replica of your baby. Now, on the one hand, something handmade would have all the power poured into it throughout the process, which is always the advantage of handmaking spell components. On the other hand, (depending on the species of your pet) a store-bought toy might be more realistic, and I do believe that, for me at least, a close visual match is a major aspect of getting this dollie to work. YYMV. Actual replica plushies made based on photographs of your pet can be bought for a few hundred dollars, which is way more than I can afford lol. A picture of your pet printed onto a cushion is a cheaper (and potentially diy) option as well, but you would be surprised how close a match you can find in the stuffie bins at the op shop!

If you do decide to go with a commercial toy there exist several opportunities to customise it to look closer to your son, daughter or nonbinary beastie:

I am personally planning on using bleach to add orange patches to my my black cat doll for orange tortie spots. Does your pet have a defining feature you could add easily? Perhaps a scar or birthmark? Nose markings can be easily sharpied on to hard plastic noses.

They don’t all have to be physical traits: Ponyo is obsessed with cheese, and the idea of a small cheese shaped charm (like a novelty eraser or a shopkin) hanging off her collar makes me smile. A felt patch representing something could also be sewn to the doll.

Maybe the stuffie has a recording feature you could work with.

Then comes the taglocks: pick apart the stitching of the toy (or add before finishing if handmaking) and add a lock of fur, a shed whisker or claw sheath, a few drops of water or a rock from their tank/enclosure, a picture of them, a piece of paper with their name on (an especially powerful variant to this would be to get a new collar tag made for them to wear, and to place their old tag in or on the dollie). An old collar bell, a piece of their favourite toy.

Allow the animal to interact with the effigy: place it near them while they sleep, allow them to sniff it, lick it, crawl on it. 

Depending on your practice and pet you might be able to ask them to inhabit the doll with a portion of their spirit or energy from time to time. 

But even if not, their energy and part of their self will be tied to the dollie--enough to help with that long separation. 

🐈🐦🐇🐢🐖🐟🐕🐸🐀