Critters for Valentine's Day

It seems like every year the stuffed animals for Valentine's Day get both bigger and more original.  A few years ago I was astounded to see a sloth in the mix, but this year Wal-Mart has a big pink octopus.

Reminds me of my old friend Inky, from my days as a collector of Beanie Babies.  The big octopus is even pink like Inky, and he has his mouth in the wrong place!  Real octopi have their mouths on their undersides, where their legs all come together, and inside they have a little beak, like a parrot's!  Thus how a creature with no bones can deliver a nasty (in some cases fatal) bite to prey and predators alike.  On the other hand, this stuffed, nonvenomous octopus does have suckers visible on the undersides of his tentacles (Inky didn't have suckers).  And there is more than you ever wanted to know about octopi!  I like cephalopods, okay???  They look so unassuming, and yet they're so intelligent!

Lower on the intellect scale but higher on the fur scale is this snow leopard.  I thought he was cute, so I took a picture of him too.  The octopus couldn't help photobombing, LOL.

I love the shading on his nose, and the bow around his neck reminds me of the Ty Plush that I used to love dearly.  Ty Plush were the larger cousins of Beanie Babies, and some of them had bows around their necks.  My favorite was this one, Al E. Cat.  I got him for my twelfth birthday and wagged him around like a toddler for several years.  No lie, he accompanied us to Fort Massac one time, amid Daddy's protests that I looked "like a two-year-old."  I responded with a sharp "I don't care," and booked it to the fort, LOL!  If Daddy saw me now, with an American Girl doll on my hip and a nuiMOs clipped to my purse, he'd probably flip.  Or he'd just shake his head and laugh.  Depended on his mood.

Speaking of Daddy, I saw no elephants in this year's Valentine's Day pile.  Daddy collected elephants (ceramic, wood, stuffed, it didn't matter), and if Mama or Sister or I saw a unique one we'd grab it for him.  My favorite one had airbrushed dirt on his feet, like he'd just taken a dust bath (elephants do that).  But so far, I have seen no elephants.  Bummer.  I like what I HAVE seen, though!

Happy super-early Valentine's Day,
RagingMoon1987