This Post is Not About Valentine's Day

In my experience, there are three types of people on February fourteenth: 

1. Those who hate Valentine's Day (probably because they are single)

2. Those who think that Valentine's Day is a lot of fun (or at least a chance to eat chocolate)

3. Those who dislike the manufactured, over-emphasized Hallmark holiday (and are afraid that if they express this, people will class them with group one)

I am one of those cynical people, but despite my mixed feelings about the holiday, a Special Someone came into my life one February fourteenth, and I would like to dedicate this post to telling you about them.

My Special Someone is not a boyfriend, as some of you might have hoped, but a stuffed horse named Teefty. My parents gave her to me on Valentine's Day in 2002, and she swiftly became one of my most special belongings, second only to my Panda Opos. ...Yes, those were their names. I was only fifteen months old when I named Opos, but despite that necessary disclaimer, you can see that I was a very strange child. In fact, I am still very strange, as evidenced by how I am writing a birthday tribute for one of my stuffed animals.

But I digress. On that fateful Valentine's Day in 2002, my parents gave me a silky-soft "Beanie Buddy" horse named Trotter. The Olympics from Salt Lake City were on during that week, and I got to know this new stuffed companion during the commercial breaks and the events which did not interest me. At one point, I attempted to make a saddle for her out of paper, and when that project failed, I realized that my creation would make a fine Red Cross nurse's cap. Immediately, Trotter fell deathly ill, and I had to nurse her back to health with that on my head. (I am convinced that we have a picture of this somewhere, and will be very pleased when it is unearthed.)

Within a week or so of receiving her, as she became more and more real to me, and less like a store-bought creature with a traditional name, I commenced inventing names for her. I called her all sorts of strange things, going through a never-ending supply of nonsense words until I settled on Teefty. It just seemed to fit, although I do not know how, and I have rarely called her "Trotter" since. That may have been the name on her tag, but she became Teefty, and could be nothing else to me.

When I was about seven, I began constantly making up stories about Teefty, establishing a precociously complex story world. Although my stories had some issues with continuity and with the suspension of disbelief,  I was very creative, and had a whole cast of characters which I would involve when telling about whatever exciting event had just happened in the lives of these animals. Using ideas of things I had either experienced or vividly imagined, I made up these charming and ridiculous family stories about the experiences both everyday and fantastical that my stuffed animals underwent.

One of my favorite stories was the one involving the Ancient Vacuum Cleaner- the AV, for short. When Teefty and Opos were cleaning up the basement with their family, they found an old vacuum cleaner that had been their grandmother's. Upon plugging it in and starting the motor, they discovered that it could fly, and made money selling rides.

When my invention of such tales was at its peak, my sister and I shared a room. I would tell her "Teefty stories" every night, and this annoyed her to no end. However, despite her professed irritation over my stories, she would involve herself in them, and appeared to genuinely enjoy suggesting what should happen next. Whenever I pointed this out, she argued that if she was going to be miserable anyway, she might as well get out of it what good was possible. I suppose that makes sense, but it bewildered me at the time.

Teefty is such an integral part of so many of my childhood memories that it is hard to imagine life without her. Although I could have survived without this particular stuffed animal, my childhood would not have been nearly as awesome. Those years would have been completely different, had I not had Teefty, and I would be a different person now. I am very grateful that this stuffed animal came into my life, and even though in the whole scheme of things she is completely insignificant, my life has been greatly influenced by the possession of this special plush horse.

Her silky fur is now horribly matted, and no number of baths could make her face look clean again, but even though she is greatly altered from her original shininess, Teefty has unique personality and character. There might be a thousand other plush horses originally made identical to her, but she is truly one of a kind. I have never met a weirder stuffed animal, and am glad that this barely inanimate object is mine.