Adventures of Raccoony

I don't know a lot about Raccoony's past. He could be concealing secret government files or hiding a wife and kids somewhere. He didn't sneak into our lives until he smuggled his way into the Cowgirl's heart at a garage sale. 

Oh, he milked it! Scruffy, skinny neck, disheveled whiskers, plaintive eyes. She fell for him hook, line and sinker. So for a whopping quarter he was given a new identity (Raccoony the raccoon) and a new safehouse. He had a good thing going here.

Until the day the Dancer took him on a shopping trip with mom. Lots of smiles, inside jokes. They were living it up inside Marshalls. But when we were halfway home,

Mommy, where's raccoony?

I tried to put it as nicely as possible that Raccoony ran away to a better home, because it was one of those days when I just was not turning around for a twenty five cent, scruffy stuffed animal.

Two months later our family was back at Marshalls to pick out a birthday present. The Cowgirl was rummaging through the stuffed animal display and came running up to me and said, "Mommy, doesn't this look like Raccoony?"

I looked down at the floppy animal with a price tag pierced through his scruffy ear for 14.99!!

It looked so much like Raccoony that there was no mistaking that it was Raccoony.

Apparently a pretty dapper Raccoony, because he was demanding a pretty steep price.

I went to the service desk, explained our strange predicament and thirty seconds later-

All is right with the world.

Lucky little Raccoon. Lucky little girl. Bemused Tapper.