Panda Project

She arrived in a white plastic garbage bag about six weeks ago. A large, very dirty, sooty, stuffed Panda with big sad eyes. The request from her owner was, “Can you bring her back to life? She belonged to my grandson and he is about to become a father. I would like to give him back his childhood bear as a gift to his about to arrive child.” I assured her, as I gingerly touched the bear, that I could, in fact, bring this particular bruin back to life in time for her great-grandson’s arrival.

Panda has remained in her plastic bag for over a month now, as I waited for the day inspiration and energy would compel me to remove her dirty self from the bag and see what I could do.

The day has arrived, and that would be today.  First I brought out the Dyson and placed rubber gloves on my hands. Oh, I know…. I just don’t like touching things that I don’t know where they have been. I know our friend Panda has been in a garage, but I don’t know who or what was in the garage with her, and by the looks of her, it wasn’t all that pleasant.

Next I vacuumed away most of the loose cobwebs (really), dirt, sawdust, and there is even some paint on her that I’ll have to deal with later. Having gone as far as I could with the Dyson, I pulled her out of doors onto my deck and started brushing her with my specialized teddy bear cat brush.  As I brushed, her personality began to emerge through her big sad teddy bear Panda eyes. Now that she is “surface-clean” she can, at least, come into the house without her plastic bag.

I decided to let her absorb the energy of the bear house and visit a bit with Woody before we begin the next stage of our restoration project.

Woody, as you know, was rescued from the tideflats way back in the 90’s. I figured if anyone one of the bears was suitable to share hope and survival stories, it would be Woody. Tomorrow, perhaps, Panda will get her new face. Her nose, if you can tell from the pictures, is quite flattened out. Probably from many hugs in her previous life. Now I need to prepare her for more hugs to come.

Stay tuned! Hugs and love from Vicki