I know that I said that it was overly sentimental, and I still believe that’s true, but you have to judge something written by a teen different than how you would judge something written by an adult, and for a teen, that was extremely well written. And a sweet story.

As for the lady who redid her house in black and white, I have to say: At least she kept it at her house. I think the strangest part of this whole thing has been this patron giving us the stuffed animals, and then expecting us to play along with her when it comes to talking to the darn things. Do what you want at home, but don’t force me to go along with. KWIM?

Lynne >> That is true. A part of me is sad for her and what has obviously been a difficult life. I guess the larger part of me is half laughing/half frustrated that she’s forcing me to play her games, or otherwise come across as being a mean and hateful person. When a grown woman coos at a stuffed animal in public, and asks you to kiss the darn thing often, you know she’s missing a screw upstairs. Or ten.

Chris >> I am such a slacker, I know. But I wrote this blog on the day that I was at home, sick, and I didn’t think I should probably tie up people’s time at work by calling and asking them to run over and look at the little yellow slip. Today I took my camera with me to work and took the picture you see above, and added in the information about Kiki’s name, which is why the blog now has all of that in there. I figured a picture is worth a thousand words, and thus this picture had to be worth at least two thousand.

Autism Insights >> Hi girlfriend! I wandered onto your site the other night and wondered how you were doing, so I dropped a card and read through a bit. I’m so glad you’re still blogging. Many of the people who started when we did aren’t blogging anymore, so it’s good to see some of us “old timers” are still around.

Sariah >> Nope, no THE Charley. If you scroll up to the first comment, you’ll see a link to a story written by Stephanie (the person who also wrote the comment) and it’s called Charley. It’s about a stuffed bear and how he feels after being forgotten about when the child grows up.

And next time you come in, you’ll have to remind me and I’ll show you. As if either of us will ever really remember this…

Ruthie >> My thoughts exactly!

Ann >> Havilah? Don’t you mean MOTHER? Daughter, getting a little disrespectful there, don’tcha think?

And you’re right, she does wear the same outfit each time. I had forgotten that tidbit until you mentioned it. She is a nice person, other than her stuffed-animal-talking obsession…

I think that even if she had just given it to us and told us to have it as our mascot or something, that would have been cute and fine. The problem comes when she wants us to feed the darn thing, and kiss it, and talk to it often. That’s where I draw the line.

Hava

BTW, funny! And I didn’t know that the cat had a name. I guess I learn something new every day!

On the other hand, I’ve heard of a woman who had her house done completely in black and white cows including having a piano with cow spots. That’s a bit unusual too.

I don’t have any problems with people writing stories about attachments to stuffed animals as a fictional story. But when people start cooing and doing the whole baby talk thing to a stuffed animal sitting on the shelf at the library, it starts to creep me out.

Am I strange with this one? Should a 40-year-old woman be speaking baby talk to a stuffed animal in public? Tell me what you guys think - I’d love to hear it!

Melissa >> I’m quickly finding out that “Stranger Than Fiction” doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of working with the public. The more bizarre a story is, the more believable it is to me, simply because we get some awfully weird things happening at the library all the time. And I know we can’t be the only place that has their fair share of loony-bin patrons/customers.

Hava