They Have Feelings Too

     In Washington State a driver received a hefty fine for driving in the HOV lane while using a big stuffed dinosaur for the passenger. One thing to the driver credit, he did have the dinosaur’s seat belt fastened.
     But I don’t see anywhere in the report where anyone was concerned about the feeling of the dinosaur. 
     What does it say when it gets back to the kid’s room and the rest of the stuffed toys. But more important what do the other toys say. Probably something like this. 
     The pit bull will start off with, “Hah, yous thought you was so smart. You thought you was some kinda big shot.” 
     The clipped puddle named Mitzi says, in a soft voice, “Guido, be nice, he was just doing what Kevin’s Dad asked him to do.”
     Snapper the alligator speaks up, “That’s our problem, we all just do what anyone wants us to do. Even you, Guido. When Kevin was dragging you around by the tail, you didn’t look so tough.” 
     Guido snarls, “Okay, but yous gotta unnerstand that there’s a big difference between lettin a little kid drag me around and participatin in some cockamamie criminal endeavor.” 
     A GI Joe asks, speaking to Guido, “Where’d you learn a big word like cockamamie?” 
     Guido laughed and said, and even if it did sound sort of sinister, the others knew that he was the softest wise-guy around, “Hey, I pay attention when Kevin watches his shows on TV.” 
     An obviously old donkey, who had on one and one-half ears, a faded coat, a tail that looked like it had been on fire at one time, or maybe twice, and with one eye missing, added to the conversation, “You kids should have been around before TV. That’s when we really had to be on our game. And I mean 24/7. Now you all have it easy.” 
     Mitzi said, “Yes, Horace, we’ve heard all about the good old days before. I for one am glad to be of a younger generation.” “Squawk, generation, generation, squawk,” offered Rose, the parrot. 
     “Squawk, me not stuffed, squawk,” she added. 
     “Yeah, Yeah,” said Snapper, “like we haven’t heard before how special you are.”
     Through all this Dino, the dinosaur had been quiet. Then said with a sigh, “I told him it wouldn’t work, but he told me to shut up, so I did. He was rather rude.” 
     “Did the police talk to you at all?” asked Horace. 
     “Oh, yes,” answered Dino. “One of the officers patted me on my nose and told me this was going to go on my permanent record. For some reason he thought that was very clever. 
     Like I said, no one realizes the emotional trauma a stuffed toy will go through if taken on an adventure like this.