Return of the "Prodigal Cow"

All the children have a "special friend" - a favorite stuffed animal they have loved to death and cuddled till there are bald patches as if the creatures are in the midst of chemo treatments: Sunshine has "Duckie," Bonuts has "Cowie" and Babe has "Pinky" - the Pig. Not very original in the naming, I'm afraid.


Anyway, Cowie went MISSING over a month ago - disappeared into thin air. We searched everywhere, tore the house up and down, looked all over Bonut's usual haunts: church, the mini-van, the playroom, closets... But he was gone.


Bonuts bore it like a champ with a few tears and the self-preserving explanation the he had gone off with the Wonderpets, from the kids' TV show of the same name. They save other baby animals that are in danger while singing all their lines in childish operatic lisps. Bonuts loves the show. She said that Cowie was somewhere in the wild performing noble feats and when his job was done, he would be home to tell her of his adventures. It was a better explanation than I could come up with.


Yesterday, the snow finally melted. DH was cleaning up the backyard and came across Cowie frozen solid as an ice sculpture on the horsey swing. A noisy half hour banging around in the dryer to thaw and he was human again. Dh put Cowie under Bonut's covers to suprize her when she came home from school.


Oh, she was ecstatic!!! Dh told her that Cowie had been on adventures in Africa and was exhausted from his fighting and the journey home. But over the course of the next few days, when Cowie had rested, he would tell her of his exploits - one story a night till all was confessed.


Tonight Cowie told of his rescue of a baby snake by using the Mother snake as a rope. He had wanted to return home to the Mellenpatch, especialy for the holidays, but the Wonderpets begged him to complete a few more secret missions and he complied.

Dh is such a wonderful father. A storyteller. His children adore him.