Simi's Menagerie

When Simi was just born, his aunt and uncle gave him two small, soft stuffed animals. One was a frog and the other a little brown puppy-dog. We put them in Simi's crib with him (another practice that's frowned upon these days).

As months went by, Simi-the-infant began to grab for one of the animals. It was always the same one: the puppy-dog. At first we thought it was just chance that he'd grab for the dog; perhaps that was the closest one to him or perhaps that was the one we'd give him. But if we gave him the frog, he'd drop it and reach for the puppy.

Four years later, "Puppy" is a member of our family. In fact, last year we put a "pet id tag" on the dog after we nearly lost it twice while traveling. Puppy was with Simi in the operating room during his open heart surgery. Sometimes Puppy even talks; his voice sounds remarkably like Simi's.

Simi's menagerie continually grows. Puppy is joined by "Dottie", a Dalmatian "beanie-baby" dog. He's also joined by "Blackie", a small stuffed Dalmatian dog. Most recently Puppy is joined by "Baby Sister", the baby doll we gave the boys before Leila was born. Sometimes he sleeps with all or some of his menagerie; sometimes all or some accompany Simi to where-ever he is going.

Interestingly, the stuffed frog sits on a shelf with some other stuffed animals. And Simi absolutely LOVES frogs.

Of course, Puppy is the consistent one in Simi's arms.