We just caught up in time with our small city animal buddies! Had we not seen them last couple of week, we would't have known when the pool would be opened!  Yesterday was the grand opening!  All of our old animal buddies and newer buddies (the ducks and geese that live in The Lake at FDR Park and gave us rides over the winter), all of the local stuffies and dolls we met last summer at the pool (including our Garden Gal's gardening group), and all of our downstair's neighbors and still Need-to-be Adopted Teddies in the basement went with us.  (We had invited our buddies on Tequila Teddy's message board, but they couldn't go because it was Mister Frodo's birthday over the weekend and everyone was preparing.)

Once again, everyone (except for the squirrels, because this is the toughest time of the year for them -- winter storage is eaten and no trees produce nuts yet) brought enough food for three to eat all day. (We had Daddy and Mommy go to the grocery store and pick us up several dozen pounds of extra nuts  for our squirrel friends, just to make sure they were OK for a while, and didn't have to worry about searching for more food for a few days.) We started the fireplaces  in that vacant building near our pool, so we could have hotdogs cooking all day. (Mice  like hotdogs too, and the pigeons  like to eat hotdog rolls toasted, for a special treat! Put extras on the toasted rolls -- cheese, baked beans, sauerkraut and such -- and they're in pigeon heaven!)

There was more then 500 there -- stuffies, dolls, pigeons, teddies, squirrels, mice, geese, ducks and even some new buddies, like Mr. Owl from the 100 Acres Woods! (Winnie often shows up for special occasions, as do Kanga, Roo, Piglet, and Tigger. Eyore  likes Axlerod's company, since they both sound quite a bit alike, but this is the first time we ever met grand ole Mr. Owl! So cool!) He instantly became friends with Axlerod too, so Axlerod and his buddies were off to the side, calculating work detail schedules and life guarding duties for the whole summer!  They're beary smart and know the basic schedule of our small city animal friends' life cycles, so they made sure no gals were called to work at the pool when they are due to have babies or have babies.  Fortunately, about half of our small city animal buddies have already had their babies for the year, or are just about due. The amazing thing is, by the end of the summer, all those smallest of the small animal buddies will know how to swim, if they will ever learn.

And, speaking of swimming, Tee was quite excited when he found out that there were a few other cats around.  Most of them were strays, so they were also small wild city animals. (The first thing they had to learn was to not eat any of the mice or squirrels, but, although it's kinda gross, they prefer rats anyway! They'll even eat bugs! Ewwwwww!) Some of the other cats were just like him -- stuffed kitty cats! We are all most excited for him, since he has always felt different, being the only cat in our family. We don't think he's different! He does though. And what was beary cool was that some of the other cats -- wild and stuffed -- also live in diverse families! The stuffed ones live with Teddies, and a stuffed rhino (who passes gas -- Phew!), and stuffed doggies. And one of the wild cats was raised by a pit bull, (does that make her a "pit cow?" We weren't sure, but didn't want to insult anyone, so we never asked.) so tends to act more like a doggy then a cat. (He actually doesn't understand that most cats aren't raised by doggies, but, with so many doggies in our family, we're not going to s'plain that to him anyway!)

Opening the pool includes taking the cover off and seeing how much cleaning it needs, before even considering hopping in. Fortunately, we have a few stuffed hippos, elephants and dinos (only one of the dinos passes gas too -- Peeeeeeeeeeeeeee U!  Who ever came up with the idea of creating stuffed animals who fuff?! ), and, since they all love playing in the water so much, over the winter and spring they sneakeded over, opened the pool up, just to put enough cholorine in it and clean out the leaves and algae that was accumulating ("accumulating!" Good word!), so it would be ready to hop into today! They worked so hard over the winter that we gave them the first two hours of pool time all to themselves!  It took less then half an hour to get the pool opened!

While the pool caregivers enjoyed their quiet waters time (none of them are kids, so they just like sitting in the water and catching up with each other), we arranged games for the kids.  (Fortunately, stuffed animals and small wild city animals don't often get to grow old, so we are all kids.....ummm, almost all. Axelrod, Mr. Owl, Eyore, Grover, and a few other of the stuffies are over 30 years old, so, although they aren't young, they do, at times, like to join in the games too.) Having watched Zoom on PBS all winter and spring, we also had Mommy and Daddy buy plenty of supplies for games -- balloons, eggs, sacks, plastic spoons, tape, (no thumb tacks though! Eyore doesn't mind us playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey, but he prefers tape, not pins) string, and other important supplies to play all sorts of games. We also made lots and lots of copies of last year's scanvenger hunt list, that we took to the Dumpster Diving Weekend with our buddies on Tequila Teddy's message board, so, when all the parents and older group needed to rest, the young ones took that time to hunt for the treasures on the list. Thankfully, planning ahead, we had crafts first, and taught everyone how to make baskets with whatever was available (usually weeds and vines, but the mice and smaller critters and stuffies used egg shells for their baskets.)

An hour into our activities, we started getting lunch ready. Most of the small city animal buddies just presented what they found in the trash cans onto a large blanket in the shelter, while Teddy, Spaulding and several of the other Teddies tendeded the fire and started roasting hotdogs. We got to show off our grill that we got for Christmas for the first time to everyone. Unfortunately, it's been used so often, most of our buddies thought we got a used one. We take good care of it, but using it four to eight times a day, well, its just hard to make it stay brand new looking. On the other paw, having used it so often, and since it is cast iron, it has become perfectly seasoned for hotdogs, and once everyone had a hotdog on our grill, they knew it was the bestest invention since honey!!! (We do like honey, like all Teddies do, but we prefer baklava to honey straight out of the honey pot, unlike most Teddy Bears. Never try s'plaining that one to Pooh! He just doesn't get it, and, well, we're not sure why we're like that either?!)

When lunch smells filled the air, it was as good as a lunch bell!  Everyone, including the big stuffies from the pool, came filing up in rows for lunch just as it was ready. It didn't take too long in line, since we had several lines going -- one for hotdogs, one for nuts, one for dumpster diving findings, one for toasted rolls with or without toppings, and two for the birdies. We knew that pigeons liked dumpster diving food and toasted rolls, but learned that ducks and geese get thier food from the bottom of the lake! (ewwww! Gross!) And then the starlings, robins, chickadees, and sparrows....welllll, lets just say they like their meals still wiggling and with ten hearts!  (A small wren got a bunch of the youngest boys around as he deftly disected a worm, showing us all that they rally do have ten hearts! Now THAT's a backup system!)

We think that nap time is always after lunch time, but some of the small city animals spend so much time looking for food and then eating it, that they only sleep at night -- or, usually in the day time for others, but there aren't too many oppossums and raccoons in our city, so we've never met knot... knock-turn-ell amimimals yet. Fortunately for us, doggies, bears, and even kitty cats are all nappers, but bunnies generally aren't. Then again, Valentine has been part of our family long enough that, even if she can't sleep dring a nap, she likes to lie quietly in Teddy's arm and watch him sleep.

Some of the other animals and a few of the stuffies and dolls, didn't want to nap, so they all played around the pool  and left us all alone in the opened-air building to sleep off our lunches. (The grown-ups still kept last year's rule that says no one can swim for an hour after eating, so the grown-ups can digest their lunches without worrying about nyone drowning. We haven't told the kids the reason for the rule, since Mommy told us the secret of the rule, and she was right! None of the kids have asked why! We remember when we thought there was no advantages to being geown-ups, but between that rule and cudling with our wives during our naps, we've found a couple of advanages. Still, it's good to be kids too!)

It wasn't long before everyone was up from their naps an we all oh-fish-earl-lee opened the Teddy Bear Pool!  The opening sarah-mony was a brilliant idea from Axlerod's Smart Buddies Group -- Each one of us got into the pool in-da-vigual-ly by our favorite get-in-the-pool move. Teddy did a cannonball, since he thinks he has an ample butt. (He hardly has any butt, but he doesn't believe it, so his cannonballs look like they are made by someone with a mongo butt!) Spaulding likes to show off his long legs, by doing a can-opener. An exceptionally high spray of water showed that it was done perfectly. Because her legs were made to spread out to her sides, like the little beanie babies were made, Lady did a jumping jack in the air before hitting the water. Valentine dove in, of course, but the jump she took to make her dive -- because of her bunny rabbit hind legs -- made it look like she was frozen in air. Although Tine and Tee spent all of last summer at the Teddy Bear Pool, because it was their first summer back, they were a little nervous on how deep the water looked, and were afraid they might have forgotten how to swim. But, because Tee didn't want his new friends to think he was a'scared, he was the one who came up with all of the kid's first entrance into the pool! And by "all of the kids" we mean "ALL of the kids!" Every single young stuffy, doll, or small city creatures (except for several of the bird's chicks, because they don't swim ever) surrounded the pool, held paws, hands and wings together, counted to three and then all jumped in together! Everyone in the pool area, even in the wading pool got soaked, which, by the expression of all those young'ns, when they came back up to the surface, was the very purpose of doing tha trick!

Now, we all have to admit that we were a bit nervous about Axlerod and his Smart Buddies Group's reaction. They are all old, after all, and not all old people appreciate a good practical joke when it's played on them. Now, Mr. Owl was flustered, but not angry. He did, however, stay out of the pool, being one of the variety of birds that just never go in water. Everyone got really quiet as they watched Axlerod, the stuffed elephants, hippos, rhinos and dinos walk slowly towards the pool with absolutely no reaction. But, what happened after that...well, we just weren't expecting it! As if on cue, they all yelled, "CANNONBALL!!!!!" And then they all did really big belly flops into the pool instead!

If we didn't know how smart they were, we would have thought they cornfused the words, but, having that many, beary big and beary smart stuffies do really painful looking belly flops made us all laugh for the longest time! Fortunately, stuffies don't have blood, so they didn't really get hurt, not even red tummies! But...wellll, you know what Axlerod looks like! Can you picture him doing a belly flop?!

We all spent the afternoon in the pool, or gabbing around the pool, or over in the big opened-air building eating. Some of us might have taken another nap or two, but the whole afternoon was for relaxing, catching up with friends or swimming, so naps are always good.

The squirrels did appreciate the extra nuts, and it reminded all the other creatures to keep an eye out for nuts, to keep our squirrel friends comfortable until late summer. The Garden Gals were a big hit when they told about our abundant herb garden.  By the end of the day, the kitty cats had joined in with the rest of the young'ns, so Tee now understands that they aren't so beary different. The ducks and geese really felt like part of the group, once they realized that they weren't there to provide bumper bird rides at all. AND. the rhino taught Axlerod how to fuff, so he's going to teach us all!

Cleaning up afterwards was easy, since everyone chipped in to help. The Teddy Bear Pool is only found in Teddy Bear Land, but the opened-air building is in People's World. We know we've done just the right amount of cleaning -- any more and People would know we were there because it woud have been too clean. Any less and they would have known it was our trash. It was a magical day! Great fun! We'll be back whenever Daddy and Mommy go out!