Freckles Found!!

Just in case anyone else was living in a state of anxiety over the missing cheetah (actually a leopard, but not to Sofie), Freckles was found today by Ms. Sander's kindergarten class, and cleaned up a bit, and returned to Sofie.

Last night I created posters, complete with color image (from an e-Bay posting) of Freckles. With LOST as the title. Sofie posted them in the morning today at school.

She is busy planning a celebration party with the other cats, all of whom are thrilled to have Freckles home safe and sound. And not too worse for her ordeal, although her glass eyes are a bit scratched by the sand. I think that a coat of clear nail polish might help, a kind of cosmetic surgery for the Beanie Baby set.

The lessons learned from this experience, for me, are that sometimes, you simply have to let the sadness be and know that it is part of her emotional growing up. I cannot protect her from all the pain she will encounter in life. So this almost loss and her pure grieving was part of my learning curve too.

And for Sofie, she needs to learn that some kids will be bullies and do these sorts of rude things, but that she can confront the perp (once we figure out who it was) and tell them that they really made her sad. Sofie is learning to express herself more clearly on emotional issues or things that make her angry or sad. Mostly she expresses them to me, but she is also learning how to stand up for herself. A good life lesson, indeed.