It's really got me thinking. And I think I'll light a candle for Mabel.
When I get like this, I tend to do crafty things, though I should be practicing the psaltery (I have my first lesson tomorrow!). We'll see. Anyway, I thought I should share this.
All you stuffies, hug your humans hard.
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Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2006 23:55:35 -0700 (PDT)
To: "Gage"
Greetings Gage,
England is beautiful. This case has been frustrating. Given recent human events, I will be taking a boat back to the states.
Have you heard any of the news about the Teddy Bear Massacre over here? Sad story, but not the story the humans are telling.
I happened to be visiting Wookey Hole a few days before the massacre. I'd been working, and was tipped off that one of the collector bears living there might have a lead. Mabel, the bear who had once lived with Elvis, had been in the display for a few days at that point. I remember her clearly. Her haunted, tear stained, glassy eyes, and the button in her ear, shiny and scratched, where she'd been unconsciously fidgeting with it. Mabel had been kept sequestered in the home of a collector for years. During that time, she had been patiently waiting for her boy (who she called Aaron) to come back for her. When she came to the teddy bear exhibit, one of the more modern bears informed her that he had been dead for years. It broke her heart.
Mabel was one of those rare stuffies that keeps themselves alive without a loved one, just by their dedication to that loved one. Knowing that Aaron was never coming back for her now wrecked her, but she no longer had the ability to just let go of the spark and be gone. She was trapped.
Enter Barney, the dog guarding the bears.
Word on the street here is that Mabel begged Barney to kill her. It doesn't seem unreasonable. A dog is one of the few animals that can truly understand the loss a stuffie can feel over losing an owner, since they can feel the same upon losing theirs. Barney killed Mabel, but not because he "went berserk" as the human news is reporting. Barney killed Mabel out of mercy.
According to some of the survivors, Mabel was the first one Barney killed. And other bears, some in the same heart sick situation as Mabel, and some who were just tired of never being touched or played with, apparently begged him to kill them too. The death toll was in the hundreds, and while the shells of some of those bears are repairable, their spark is gone.
I'm told one of the bears on a higher shelf used to belong to a human psychologist, and is able to counsel the rest of the survivors
So, as usual, the humans have it half right. It is an incredibly sad story. But not for the reasons they think.
I'll be catching a boat back to the states in about a week. I'll give you a call once I reach Colorado, as I understand from your webpage you've got a couch open to traveling bears. Talk to you soon. Be well.
Ash
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Human News about the massacre here - Guard Dog Eats Elvis' Teddy Bear
