Bloganuary writing prompt: Describe an item you were incredibly attached to as a youth. What became of it?

I can tell you what type of items I tended to get attached to: something small, probably cute, and later on was a prop for my comedy. Except for a few, these were almost always bears. Some exceptions include a dragon, Squirrel Dude, a cat, and my oldest favorite: Actually a Bobcat. Because he had spots, so he was a bobcat, damn it!

His name was Kitten, originally. He was small like one! He couldn’t have been more than 5 inches tall, and is now a very light gray. In 7th grade I had a dear friend take him home to have her mom patch up his failing spotted butt, so his butt implant is a light blue. This was also the same friend that insisted on calling him Bob (short for bobcat) but I refused, so we compromised: KittenBob.

He was certainly for companionship in the lonely elementary school years, like a security blanket. It was pretty rough for a shy bookworm taking speech therapy classes. He didn’t start really becoming the vehicle of jokes until middle school– I’d act out scenes or have him deliver punchlines, usually in math class. In a routine, he was the boke to my tsukkomi. I didn’t make it as the class clown, but my friends thought I was funny.

When I became a freshman in high school, I began leaving him at home; KittenBob was getting old and I worried about damaging him. He passed the mantle onto a character I created to entertain my younger sibling, the inspiration being a knockoff beanie baby. From doodle to prop, his successor was Not A Cat and carried on to be a distraction in Spanish class, a guest during silly family outings, and starring in his own college project!

I still have them hanging about my bedroom, chillin’ in the shadowbox or lurking on a bookshelf.