Ode to Tiger

Fare the well, dear friend.
Your selfless service,
Your constant care,
You gave me more than I may share.

In my most needy hour,
Your wounded ear.
Your gift from Joe.
It was my love, of that I know.

Ok, I give up. Poetry is a more than a stretch for me. ;) But it is true, Tiger is gone. Lost in the Target, a week and a half ago. John and I got to the car and realized it was gone. We put our bags in the car and retraced our steps twice. I called the customer service 6 times in the next few days, and glanced around the next time I ran in this past weekend. No Tiger.

John has handled it in stride. Mom actually freaked out more that her sweet boy. As we were walking through the Target that day, I kept asking John "where is Tiger?", maybe a little panic slipping into my voice. He was hilarious. Kept turning his hands up and making a little squeak as if to say "I don't know." I then told him "we are in trouble, T-R-O-U-B-L-E" and he leaned forward in the cart and belly laughed hard.

Mama was not laughing. I had visions of a full on revolt. We had a back up Tiger, but he was clean and didn't have a gnawed off ear. And it wasn't THE Tiger that had gotten John through so much. We did have a few rough moments, where John was frantically throwing his other babies out of his crib searching for that ear, but it was only a couple days and no melt downs. He slept ok, though when he did wake he tried to find the ear. Just about broke my heart. And in all honestly, I took this way more poorly than John did. I LOVED THAT TIGER AND DIDN'T EVEN KNOW IT. Sometimes we don't realize these things until it's too late.

So John has embraced Two. Tiger Two that is. I thought he might latch on to Monkey, or Lion, or Snowman, but instead he has fallen for Two quite hard.

As for Tiger, we have all come to believe that he has gone on to bigger things. It is obvious that since we couldn't find him in the Target and no one has turned him in that some other child needed him, and Tiger, being the selfless soul that he is, leapt from our cart to another to fulfill his destiny. I hope that he can bring as much comfort and happiness to that child as he did to our John!

God Bless you Tiger! You will never be forgotten!