Rattie

When Sadie was 10 months old Larkyn gave Kylie a set of puppets for Christmas. It was a set of "Australian Animals" so we were not quite sure what any of them were. About a month after Christmas Sadie took a liking to them and would rub their tails under her nose as she sucked her thumb. Most of then were brown, but there was one cream colored one that stood out. I decided it was the cutest one so I would give it to her to play with and she soon became attached to it. VERY attached to it. It became her lovey. We didn't know what kind of animal it was so we would just call it "animal". Jared called it a rat. Rattie was easier to say than animal so as she learned how to talk his name became Rattie. (As time progressed I'm sure it seemed to some that he was named Rattie because of how rattie he was, but the name did come first.) Sadie would not sleep without Rattie, or go anywhere without him. This caused so many problems for me since her little mind would often set him down and forget that she had until we had to go back looking for him. We would always fight over whether she was going to leave him in the car or bring him with her. The problem was, if she got tired or cranky, Rattie would always make it better, and if he wasn't there she would sit and cry out his name over and over. As a mother I knew how important Rattie was to her (and to my sanity) so any time we lost him I would always go back for him. Once I was in the Wal-Mart parking lot in West Jordan when I realized that we had left him at Target in Sandy and had to drive 20 minutes back to find him.
Another time we left DSW shoes when she realized he was gone and Kylie insisted that she had brought him in. I drug all three kids back in, up and down the aisles, and couldn't find him. We backtracked further to Babies R Us and found him underneath a clothing rack. She was so happy!
Once she left him at Nursery and by the time I realized it and ran back the church was already locked. So I borrowed Jason's key to the church and then her nursery leader's key to the nursery and let myself back in to find him among the many toy bins. I knew I had to since the next week we were going to be out of town and she couldn't go two weeks without him.
She left him at our doctor's office one day (a good half hour away) and since his office is open the same hours that I work I had to take time off work to go back and get him. We were lucky that they found him since the front desk just told me no, he wasn't there. I called back and talked to one of our nurses and she was able to hunt him down for us.
We were leaving Wal-Mart one day when Kylie noticed Rattie sitting on the stand with the greeter. Sadie had dropped him on our way in and we hadn't even noticed. Good thing that Kylie saw him! At the end of the year in 2006 Jason and Tawnie got a puppy named Buddy and once while the girls were there playing Buddy got a hold of Rattie and ripped his face open. That night Meagan carefully sewed his face back up for Sadie, but his eyes did not survive the ordeal. Sadie was just really starting to talk then and she would randomly say "No, Buddy, No!", even a time or two in her sleep. And she would tell random friends, family, and even strangers "Buddy ate Rattie's eyes!" It was so funny.

As you can tell, Rattie had become a part of our family and was Sadie's best friend. Then March 25th came. That morning Kylie and Sadie had dentist appointments. Since her last appointment involved being put to sleep I knew she was not going to do too well so I told her she could bring Rattie in with her to comfort her. After that we drove across town to Brynlie's doctors appointment. On our way home we had some extra time before I needed to be back to work so we stopped at Wal-Mart (yes, I have mentioned Wal-Mart several times because I LIVE there) to let the girls spend their Easter money from the eggs my mom gave them. Kylie couldn't find a dress up dress that covered her enough so I said we'd try Target next. (That's not the important part of the story, but I want you all to know that I don't just go shopping just to shop. Well, at least not with three kids.) So our final destination was Target. A couple of days later I realized that we hadn't seen Rattie recently. The last time that I could remember seeing him was the day we had the doctors and dentist appointments. The girls had been over to Jamey's, our neighbor and babysitter, but her daughter has her own lovey so she knows how important they are and always makes sure that Rattie comes back home. I wasn't too concerned since Sadie has left Rattie down in the basement while playing and he turns up a couple of days later. Also, she has another friend now, her doggie that was another stuffed animal of Kylie's that Sadie "adopted". So that weekend Jared and I started framing the basement and also cleaned up the girls huge mess down there. But there was no Rattie. I started to worry a little. Why hadn't I started tracking him down earlier? What if he had been left at a store for the past 5 days and they had decided to throw him away?
That Monday I called Target to see if she had left him there. The guy I talked to wasn't too helpful and I had a suspicion that he didn't really look that hard in the lost and found. Don't people understand how important a stuffed animal can be? I decided that I would go to Wal-Mart instead of calling to make sure that they do a good job of searching their lost and found. The next morning I went to the dentist's office for Kylie's fillings, fully expecting to find him there, since that was the only place that I remembered her taking him in. But there was no Rattie. So I went home and called my doctor's office (which was closed the day before). No luck there either. I was really starting to panic. He had been gone a week. Don't they say that they first 48 hours are the most important when you have a missing child? After that, your chances of recovery go down greatly!
To be honest, I think that I was more upset than Sadie. I felt horrible! I had wanted to put Rattie away for her someday so that when she got older she would have him. I felt like a failure as a mother. How could I let her lose something so important to her? The final place to look was Wal-Mart. I went in and made sure that the woman went through the lost and found really well. But still no Rattie. I began to realize that this time was different; Rattie was gone for good.

That week I had TWO dreams about not finding him, and Sadie was so upset in those dreams that it woke me up! Is this weird? (Okay, don't answer that.)
I was going to post about this earlier, but I kept hoping that by some miracle we would find him. I decided on Tuesday that I would make a special post all about Rattie on the 25th, which would mark one month since he had been gone. (If you think it is weird that I would chose a specific date to blog about this you probably haven't read my last post.)
I am so grateful that Doggie had become another best friend of hers and was able to keep her company for the past month. She would have times where she would cry for Rattie, and then other times she would talk about how the store threw him away and she would be just fine. Overall, she seemed to do much better than expected. Much better than her mother, who felt like she had completely failed in her motherly duties.
Wednesday evening I was making my bed (I had washed the sheets that day since Brynlie spit up her dinner the night before) when I noticed something in the crack between the wall and the headboard. I could not believe my eyes. There was Rattie! All this time, and there he was sleeping a foot away from me at night. I was so excited to bring him out to show Sadie. I told her to guess what was under the blanket and she said Doggie. I said it was her most favorite thing in the whole world and she said "Doggie and treats?" (she loves her sweets way too much). Then I pulled Rattie out and the squeal that she let out was worth the month of guilt I had felt. She was so cute hugging him and snuggling him, and of course, rubbing his tail under her nose. I wish I'd thought to catch the moment on camera.
She has not let him out of her sight since then. She carries him with her everywhere and is very protective of him. I love it. I love to see her so happy. Jared asked me why I didn't just throw him away since she'd pretty much been "weaned" of him. I told him that that moment was priceless to me when I showed her her long lost Rattie. I am so glad that this story has a happy ending! Now, if only we can make sure that he is never lost again!