100 Word Stories - Coco Bunny (Repost from Facebook, 14 November 2009)

We received a mysterious invitation to the Magic Friend Factory. We entered, feeling not entirely unlike Charlie Bucket. We were led through corridors, confused, but curious. In the Friend Picker, our tears were sampled, and a few minutes later, a plush sock-body twin of our late Coco came down a chute. They put it in the Stuffer, and we watched the body fill. They stitched her closed and handed her to us. When we held her, she transformed: no longer a stuffed animal, but an immortal surrogate for our lost friend. There’s a lot of magic in a little stuffing.

This was written in response to the Weekly Challenge #186 - "Stuffing" (week ending 11/14/2009) for the 100 Word Stories weekly podcast. It was the third story I wrote for this prompt, but was the most personal. It was a Fairy Tale rendition of our journey to Build-a-Bear Workshop to make a stuffed animal in tribute to our pet bunny rabbit who died this past spring.

Repost (from Facebook, 27 June 2011) Goodbye, Old Friend

I saw "Marley & Me" for the first time last night. "Saw" might be stretching it - it was on while I was grilling the corn and hot dogs for dinner. We sat down to eat just in time for the final trip to the vet's office. I HATE THAT MOVIE! I will never watch it again. All I could think about was Benson, and how I wasn't able to be there for him when we passed. For all I knew, he thought I had just disappeared. He hung on as long as he could for me to come back and see him again, but he couldn't hang on long enough. (I couldn't help but think of Coco and Charlie, Sandy and Tiger, too. That didn't help.) I miss you, Benson. I loved you as much as any other little boy could love his dog. I'm sorry I wasn't there for you.