The Lucky Pound Puppy

  I know I said you might not see me for a while, and here I am again already, but I had to share this with you.
  As you know we are going to England in a few days to visit relatives. I have been trying to gather together some gifts to take. I thought a fitting gift for the kids would be the Ohio Beanie bear. The bear came out in 2002. (Since he's the Ohio Bicentennial bear. Barb the Evil Genius undoubtedly knows what I'm talking about here.) That made finding enough of them kind of hard, even though I've been buying them when I've found them at garage sales and stuff for a while now. (And don't worry, they were either still in their plastic bags, or have been washed, so they are clean for the kids.) At the last minute we found out that our great niece is expecting, so that added another bear to the list. I haven't been able to find one though, so I had to substitute an America bear. Well, one of the kids is our nephew James' son William. When James was born Ken sent him a Pound Puppy. The Pound Puppy was named Tootsie, and James took her everywhere. She was his favourite toy. When they came over for our wedding in 1989 James brought Tootsie. In our wedding pictures Tootsie can be spotted under a bush, where James' mother threw her just before the picture was taken, so James' face would show,since he liked to hold Tootsie to his face and suck his fingers! (The actual throwing is in the wedding video.) James still had Tootsie tucked away somewhere the last I heard. I told Ken the perfect gift for William would be a Pound Puppy, but where do you find one? Do they even still make them? I thought of it too late to get one online somewhere. Well I did it! Yesterday I stopped in at Salvation Army and found a bag with not one, but two mini Pound Puppies! I brought them home and washed them right away so they could be good and dry for packing.They aren't the super tiny ones. They're about 8" long. They're gray, not brown like Tootsie, and Tootsie was a full sized Pound Puppy, but I think James will be tickled by the thought.