For the love of (stuffed) animals

I didn't realize love of animals was a genetic trait, but it obviously is. Mark is a cat lover, even though he sometimes denies it. And Eliza has clearly followed suit with the love of animals. But since her mom is an animal crank (Mark read this line and said "More like an animal killer"), Eliza is forced to dole out her animal love at the zoo and by hoarding stuffed animals and treating them like children.

Eliza's crib usually has 15-20 stuffed animals at any given time. She has a monopoly on dogs and sheep--four each. The sheep were handed down by Sage. The four lambs, named by Sage long ago, are all called "lamby." (Eliza later renamed them Mommy Lamby, Daddy Lamby, Sister Lamby and Baby Lamby--and don't even try to call one of them Brother Lamby, or mix up Sister and Mommy. Eliza won't have it.)


The dogs are Eliza's real true loves. They range in size from super humongous (obviously not purchased by her mother) to tiny (also not purchased by her mother). Even though I never buy stuffed animals, I'm not above exploiting Eliza's love for them. On each trip to Sam's Club, I immediately head for the toy aisle, where we borrow one of the huge plush dogs (they always have one). This guarantees a happy, distracted two year old throughout the entire trip, and a sobbing two year old (sans dog) on the way out the door.

Since the stuffed dogs at our house all originated with Eliza, she took the opportunity to lovingly name each one.

Now when I was young and in love with stuffed animals (since my mom was also an animal crank), I also named my stuffed animals. I think there was a Sandy and a Midnight and a Brown-y and a Blacky. (There may have been a Chevrolet amongst them for a little Ramona Quimby variation.)

Eliza has shown herself to be much more creative in her animal naming--not bound to colors, or any other predictable method, for that matter.

This dog is Lincoln.










This is Eliza riding on the back of "Riding on the back."
Nope, that is NOT a typo. "Riding on the back" is the poor dog's name. Almost as bad as Tikki Tikki Tembo... Mark was the one that first realized "Riding on the back" was the dog's name, and not a sentence fragment from one of Cowgirl Eliza's daydreams.





This panda is "Rudolph."

And these are Sage's two dogs, "Peers and Flats." (Don't ask about the puzzle pieces. I don't know either.)

What with this rampant naming creativity in our family, you'd never guess that Eliza went thirty days as Female Williams. Clearly the next generation has got the naming thing figured out. Although I think I'd rather be "Female" than "Peers."


I'm pretty sure Eliza's dream job would be to be the head "namer" at a Beanie Baby or Cabbage Patch factory. So if anyone has any connections to these places, please let me know. Until then, we might as well be our own stuffed animal factory, for all the inventory we've got. And don't try to tell me to hide a few and get rid of them after she forgets them, because Eliza never forgets. She will leave the 99 to inquire after the 1.

My aunt recently published a biography of my grandma which she titled "She never stopped loving." If I were to write a biography of Eliza right now, I might just have to title it "She never stopped loving stuffed animals." Or maybe "She never stopped trying to grab stuffed animals off the shelves at stores." Because that's the truth.