NoJoMo 5 -- The Velveteen Rabbit in NoJoMo 2018

When I was very, very young (too young to remember), I was given a pink stuffed dog. It had floppy ears, rather like a cocker spaniel. I named him Bobby Bow-Wow. He went everywhere with me.

Once, I left him at a cousin’s house, and was so inconsolable that Dad had to drive back there (a half hour each way), to retrieve him, or no one in the house would have gotten any sleep for all my wailing.

Bobby grew shabbier with every year. He was patched and repatched. Even the patches got patched. He became unstuffed, unfluffed, and probably unsanitary. Eventually, he was little more than a vaguely dog shaped rag. But he was still my constant companion until I went to school. Then, I would come home and find him waiting patiently on my bed. In time, I moved him to a shelf, and no longer sought him out. But he was there.

Mom tried to discard him once when I was in high school. I wailed as hard as I did when I was 3 and left him at my cousin’s.

I still have Bobby Bow-Wow. He is in a box of childhood mementos. When I die, I want him cremated with me. Bobby isn’t just a toy. To me, he never was. To me, he is, and always has been, REAL.

And that is why this book is near and dear to my heart, and I cannot read it without crying.

Last updated November 05, 2018