I'm about 15 years old. That's 15 years old in stuffed animal years. I don't know how I came to be, so don't ask. I'm a bit sensitive about that topic. I don't know why. I just am.
What I do know is this. A pretty little girl named Amanda (she was about five-years-old at the time) took me from a shelf in a store, about 15 years ago. She's all grown up now and in college.
The story goes that Amanda missed her daddy, my human (that's me and him in the picture), whenever he traveled away from home. He travels a lot. So, Amanda thought her daddy should have a travel buddy. You know: someone to keep him company when he's away from home. While I think my human loved the giver more than the gift, we hit off right away. Every time he looks at me, he smiles. I think it's because I remind him of Amanda's love.
My human and I have been to many places: about 25 states in America, as well as Canada, Israel, England, Scotland, and Norway.
As much fun as it has been to travel, up to a few years ago my existence was, well, kinda lonely. Most of the time I never got out of my human's suitcase. He was afraid that if he took me out of the suitcase to join him in his adventures that he might lose me. My human likes me and all, but I think he was more concerned about what losing me might do to Amanda's heart.
When my human and I are home, he sticks me in a dresser drawer filled with clothes. And there I sit; waiting--just waiting for the drawer to open, to have the light of day bounce off my eyes (I don't have retinas, so...), and then get stuffed (pun intended) into a suitcase or a backpack.
But then something really special happened.
One day my human took me out of my dresser drawer and put me in a book bag. Let me tell ya, a book bag is nowhere near as stuffy and dark as a suitcase.
Instead of getting on a plane, he drove us to a place called Grace Community Church. We went there for something called a "Shepherds Conference."
While we were there, my human took me out of the book bag and handed me to a girl--a pretty young girl named Karen. She has dark hair, a cute nose, pretty eyes, and a BIG smile. Before she even said hello, she gave me a big hug. I thought to myself, "D.B. (that's short for 'Deputy Bear'), you could get use to this!"
I really like Karen. My human really likes her, too. Melmun's human even calls my human "Uncle Tony." Pretty cool, huh?
Karen put me down on the church pew and sat me up as if I were, well, a human. And then something really cool happened.
Karen reached into a bag and pulled out a stuffed critter of her own. His name is Melmun. He's a giraffe. Well, he's not actually a giraffe, but a short, pudgy, stuffed version of a giraffe.
Don't ever tell Melmun he's not a giraffe. That's all I'm going to say about that, right now.
We sat next to each other on the pew. Neither one of us said anything for a while. We just kinda, ya know, played it cool. There were lots of old men in suits in that Grace Community Church place, so we didn't want to draw too much attention to ourselves by letting our excitement show.
Once we felt a little more comfortable, Melmun and I started talking. Melmun's story is pretty cool, but I'm going to let him tell it. That's just how we roll.
Bottom line: we became fast friends. My human let me hang out with Melmun and Karen the entire time we were at the Shepherds Conference. That goes to show how much my human trusts Karen. I can understand why.
Since that day a few years ago, my human travels to Beaverton, OR, quite a bit. He says it's because he loves to do ministry and visit with Pastor Chuck O'Neal and the Beaverton Grace Bible Church family. I'm sure that's true, but I think the real reason he goes up to Oregon so often (my human and I live in Santa Clarita, CA) is so Melmun and I can hang out together.
My human was in Beaverton last week. Melmun's human lets us get out of the house a lot more than my human does. We had a great time.
Well, Melmun and I got to talking. And we decided to start this blog: "The Adventures of Deputy Bear and Melmun." I get first billing in the title, just because I'm older. Honest.
On this blog, Melmun and I will share the stories of our adventures--our adventures when we're together and when we're apart. In most of our stories we will talk about things our humans (and other humans like them) do. Most of the times the stories will be fun. After all, humans do some wacky stuff, and there kinda interesting, if you give them a chance. But every once in a while a story might be more serious.
Regardless of what kind of stories we write, Melmun and I have agreed that our stories should be the kind that will make both little people and big people, young people and old people, smile. Like this. :-)
I hope you like our blog.
I like you already. Just sayin'.
