We’ve had dogs die and people die. I wish for Mae a young lifetime of losing only things that can be replaced or fixed in Wisconsin.

I’m still trying to get over that there’s ACTUALLY A REAL DOLL HOSPITAL you can send injured dolls to - holy cow!

My girl was given a stuffed rabbit from Laura Ashley’s at birth and at 10 months picked her to sleep, eat and breath with…”Laura bunny.” Well at 21/2 years old dad returns her from a visit with a lost Laura. With sobs she looks at me and says, “You have to find Laura ’cause daddy can’t”…off she and I go to Laura Ashley’s and there is a nice new fluffy one on the shelf. “My Laura” she beams. ‘Super Mom ” I beam to myself.

Yes, about 9 months later I encounter the same scenario however, her, with a kidney condition and only one kidney, we are on our way to Children’s with tears of “Daddy lost Laura mommy. You have to find her.”

Easy, I think, I’ll just call Laura Ashley’s and have not one but 2 sent to the hospital over night. Alas, Laura is no longer made but might be able to be found. Calls to many stores and finally corporate headquarters, I am provided a list of phone numbers of the outlet stores. Halfway through the list I find an outlet with 2 left in the store. “fed ex overnight both please.”

However upon arrival they are clean, fluffy and smell beautiful. No matted fur, graying color, missing whiskers or rubbed clean sateen ears. At three, I knew she would know the difference when I presented Laura to her.

I closed my eyes, submerged her in water then placed her under the tire of my car on gravel and went from drive to reverse just a few times. Laura was not quite an antique; more like a distressed collectible.

She never new the difference. The clean one went with dad and lasted a very few months before he lost her again.

Let’s flash forward to a 10 year old. She has spent a full day at Children’s getting all kinds of assessments and such. 9:00 pm rolls round and we are heading towards bed. “Laura!.” she screams, “Where is my Laura?”

My assurance that she is safe at Children’s is not enough. We are on the phone talking to the security guard. About 45 minutes later, after retracing our steps of the day, he calls to let us now he has found her under a chair in one of the many waiting rooms. We live in the opposite direction of his drive home, however, being a dad he offers to call a taxi and send Laura our way.

Now, almost 14, we still have Laura, and she still does not know this story. As for dad, he lost her a few years back through continual selfishness till she was old enough to say enough is enough. Something that still cannot be said to Laura Bunny.

Just damn amazing. Way back in the distant mists of time, moms could & did repair dolls themselves. Substituted home made cloth for store bought. Corn shucks stuffed into limbs to strengthen them. New wooden pins carefully inserted to join the broken parts, made in the basement in dad’s shop. Now they go to the hospital, because plastic is a specialty that few know how to deal with well. Not w/o the original patterns & plans for the dies.

But countless children have had their favorite toys & pals carefully curated, repaired and watched over by their loving parents. But it’s what love does. Love does not continually carelessly lose the love objects of their children or mates. Accidents happen. Repairs are sometimes required for everyone & everything. We always need to keep our old friends around to keep us company.

Cheers & Good Luck on your visit, ‘VJ’

That’s a pretty fair price for a fix up the way American Girls run! We haven’t lost any humans yet that he’s close with, the last one died when he was just a baby & it’s going to be rough. We’ve sent many a creature to Heaven or to the “ocean” a la Nemo. I guess it’s a start for preparing for those grown up disappointments (or eaten toys!).

Best wishes to Amanda in the healing process.

I have endured the American Girl experience in NYC with Violet, my 7 year old, as a very newly solo Mom with my 18 month old son in tow – the day after Christmas (!), no less. Clearly, I am completely insane. My Violet is a light skinned, light haired girl, her father is African American / White mixed and I am white. She did pick from the catalog for Santa (aka: Grandma) a doll that looks like her, vaguely ethnic. I breathed an inner sigh of relief she didn’t ask for the white-white doll with the blue eyes. Despite my deeply conflicted feelings about American Girl, I do guiltily indulge in retail therapy sometimes and Violet had lost her Daddy abruptly. So, under the tree went “Josie”, Violet’s twin American Girl doll. The only thing she asked for in 2006.

We do have a mouthy-chewy terrier, but so far Violet’s twin sister, “Josie” has made it unscathed. We lost our last terrier in 2004 and I had to break the bad news. Violet slept with that dog and loved him very much. I kept it very simple: The dog is dead. He is not coming back. Dead means you do not come back. We are very sad, and we have our memories of him. “But when will be get better?” she kept asking. It’s just not easy, and my girl is like me: She feels things deeply, and gets very attached to objects.

My daughter Andrea has always been mature for her age but had a doll that she named Donna. That doll was my link to keeping her a little girl and always made me feel like she was when I saw here carrying or sleeping with it. A couple of years ago the plastic along Donna’s neck started to seperate, then eventually her entire head came off. Andrea was devastated she still carried both items around with her and it was actually a little disturbing. So I opened up the arts and crafts box and tried everything from hot glue to a needle and fishing line. Nothing worked. I eventually convinced her to decorate a shoe box for Donna who now is stored in the box and under the bed. Every now and then she opens the box and sheds a fewl tears for her beloved doll. This of course helps me see the little girl in my mature 11 year old daughter.

So far, the Queens have survived without possessing one of these dolls.

It might be because I told them that my money doesn’t work at that store; I don’t know.

We aren’t really doll people here in these parts, but the whole doll hospital thing? Scared me.

I’m 12, and along with that, a serious and avid doll collector. I have 87 dolls (various) and then 7 American Girl Dolls. I also have 2 pets, I have learned that shelfs are probably my best friend. Of course, my animals have learned to respect my dolls (I have had the dolls longer than the animals) but I still am paranoid. A tip, never let the doll’s hair be brushed with a real human brush that has been used. This will cause dirt and oils and who knows what else to stick to the dolls hair. Also, there are many sites that have ways to restring your AG Doll (when the limbs get so loose, you will know it’s time). The best one is justmagic.com…at least I think that is the site. NEVER let your child be present during a restringing process because it will involve taking the doll’s head off, unstuffing it, and taking the limbs off…I think AG had already restrung it at the hospital, and unfortunately the doll will now arrive home with a plastic ring, making the restringing process very difficult. These are a few things I thought I’d mention because trips to the AG hospital are becoming more and more expensive. *ALSO if you are looking for quality dolls, try and get pre-mattel ones…The quality is much much better. Google pre-mattel if you don’t already know what it means.*