When the Lil' BOY was 6 yrs. old, our family was expecting a visit from The Stork, (It's said the Stork helps to deliver new babies), but it turned out that the stork forgot his glasses that day, got lost and ended up landing in a snow pile in the South Pole!  So, he called his office and they said to cancel the job, come home and they would let us know.  Suddenly "poof", we weren't expecting his visit any more. This sort of thing happens now and then, but thank goodness not much. Most of the time the silly stork carries a map and a second pair of emergency glasses in his hat and everything works out perfectly. But, since he had to go back to the office, we were put back on the waiting list.

The Lil' BOY was very sad and so a friend of MOM's, (Ms. Leslie) who could make Cabbage Patch style dolls, (cute little, pudgy faced boy and girl dolls) decided to make a new, (not real), person for him. She gave it dark hair like the Lil' BOYS own hair, greenish eyes like his, and then we bought some material and Ms. Leslie made them into matching shirts and blue jeans.  When she was all done she came over and told the Lil' BOY she had a surprise for him and then gave him the new clothes. He was quiet, but smiled politely. He put on the new jeans & shirt and gave each of us a little hug and a soft thank you. 

He started to walk away when Ms. Leslie told him she had another gift for him too and all he could say was, "okay".  He thought it would be another shirt. This time she gave him a wrapped up package with the "person" in it and when he opened it his face lit up like sparklers and his eyes and mouth opened as wide as they possibly could.  If it were possible, I think he would have started flying around the room.  It was love at first sight and it didn't take him long to notice that the "person in the box  looked just like him and had on clothes exactly like the ones Ms. Leslie had just given him. He realized now why he was given the clothes, but he was so excited that he could hardly speak.

I ask him what he'd like to name his new friend and he said quickly, "I was going to name my little brother Jack Robert - so I'll give the name to him instead."  Where he got that name we'll never know (and we never told him that it would have been a little sister).

And so it was that Jack Robert became a member of our family, and has been dearly loved even though he doesn't have fur - the Lil' BOY and I don't have fur either. It didn't take long before he was introduced to Macaroni T. Bear and the three have been best friends ever since. 

[ NOTE: It's many years later, the Lil' BOY (who is now 6' 4" tall, and has had his name shortened to just BOY) still keeps JR & Mac in a special, (secret) place. Every once in a while, when he doesn't know it, I hear his very deep voice saying, "Hi fellas!  How you guys doing?" and (snicker) I know exactly who he's talking to. ]