Cuddle Clones

[Catherine]

There is a company that produces a plush toy replica of your pet from pictures.
They really look like the pet.
http://www.cnet.com/news/cuddle-clones-m...real-pets/

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/15/living/fea...ones-irpt/
I just can't decide if I would want one.

[Tobi]

Oh! I heard about this last night from someone I talk to online. Her dog passed away in 2013 and though she took on a stray cat, and adopted another dog within months, she is still unhappy for missing him. She is going to buy one of these. I actually wondered what she was talking about until I saw your post here.

I'm not sure I'd want one myself. I think it would creep me out to have an un-moving, unresponsive Misty-replica hanging out in my house! Although I can't physically 'cuddle' her living spirit (who sometimes visits) I think I prefer that. 'Cuddling' her spirit in my heart is far nicer and warmer than a stuffed replica.
But we are all very different.

[Catherine]

I know, I feel the same way. I feel close to Jonathan sometimes, but I am not sure a stuffed toy would be the same.

It was cute when they gave the look-a-like stuffed toy to the actual pet.

[Tobi]

Haha! If I had got one of her while she was still alive here, Misty would have probably growled at it when she first saw it, and from then on, studiously ignored it, turning her face this way and that but refusing to look at it properly. Then she would gave given a deep sigh and looked up at me as if I needed serious psychiatric assessment. I don't think she would have liked a doppelganger on the premises.

But that was just us. We are nuts anyway.

Actually I can see how helpful things like this can be. They can help to focus love and remembrance on the one who has left. The actual Soul of the animal who has left would still feel the love. So I don't think it could do any harm for those who need it.

[Catherine]

I have a few animal pictures on the wall, but as a visual reminder of things that I can never forget in my heart. I also have pictures of special places I have been. I like visual reminders.

A stuffed toy might resemble the pet, but I felt a stronger emotional pull from Jonathan's blanket. I put it on a shelf when she was actually dying and I wanted to pick her up. I found it there weeks later. No stuffed toy could have touched me so deeply. It wouldn't have had an actual connection the my pet.

I think you and Misty had an amazing relationship. You still have an amazing relationship.