Well this is actually a story about 4 kitties, but I will get to that. The first gift Alice received after she was born was a small beanie-baby-type kitty from her cousin Ryan. She has pretty much been attached to that thing ever since.
She carries her kitty everywhere and requires it to fall asleep. When she is ready for bed she first asks for her kitty, then her Binky. Once we left the kitty at my parents and didn't realize it until we were halfway home. We turned around (an hour detour) to retrieve the kitty. My dad thought we were crazy, but I wasn't willing to go though bed time without it.
The way that she comforts herself is to rub the kitty's tail on her nose.
The kitty has been spilled on, barfed on, coughed on, chewed on, and shoved up the nose so many times I sometimes think of it as the velveteen rabbit. (For those who don't recall the story of the velveteen rabbit, it is about a stuffed animal that is a child's favorite toy and comforts him through a horrible illness. When the child recovers, all of his possessions must be burned, including the rabbit. Sometimes I look at the kitty and think it should be burned).
Stuffed animals are not made to be washed, but the kitty has received A LOT of baths because I worry about it making her sick. She loves her kitty so much that we were starting to get a little worried. We weren't worried because her love for her kitty was unhealthy, but what if it got lost or so badly damaged it wouldn't be salvageable.
On a recent overnight visit to my mom's, she also became concerned about the kitty dilemma. She decided to buy a new kitty exactly like the one Alice has. So she googled the brand of the kitty and tried to find the exact one. The only problem was that it was not to be found. She found a kitty fairly similar but it had a white chest and white feet. I took a look at the similar kitty only to realize that was the right kitty, just new and fluffy and clean. She ordered 3 just to be on the safe side. We got a phone call a few days later telling us that the kitties were on back order and it would be several weeks until they arrived. No big deal. It seemed like forever, but the kitties finally arrived. I pulled them out of the box and just started laughing at the difference.
As you can see the old kitty is quite dingy and has compacted from love and washings. The fur of the old one lost its softness long ago and the tail is rock hard. When I introduced Alice to her new kitty she immediately rejected it. It took a few tries and hiding the old kitty for her to realize that the new kitty was just as good, and a whole lot softer then the old. We just saw Toy Story 3 and I had visions of the rivalry between the old kitty and the new. I'm just happy not to be so concerned about losing/ruining the old kitty. I just hope that 3 new ones were enough.
