You might remember some recent drama we experienced over Kitty Meow. I won’t rehash the entire story here, but suffice it to say, Ana was okay… until she wasn’t. The more she allowed herself to think about it, the worse she seemed to feel, until she convinced herself that maybe, just maybe, Kitty Meow wasn’t really gone after all.

I had no choice but to take her to Goodwill myself where we looked over all the shelves, searched high and low, and finally asked an employee if she had seen a striped cat wearing a blue evening gown. (Because I’m sure she sees them every day, right?) She hadn’t, and she said there weren’t any stuffed animals in the back.

“Okay,” I told Ana. “It’s time to be okay with this.”

Ana nodded… not looking okay in the slightest.

“What I think you should do,” I told her, “is talk to these stuffed animals here, and see who might have been friends with Kitty Meow. She’s having fun with another family now, but look at all these friends who still need a home. Maybe, if you can promise to be okay with what’s happened and you can be done being sad, we can take one of these friends home with us.”

Ana nodded again and went looking. She returned with a bear from Build a Bear. (Yes, now some other kid’s mother is going to be searching high and low at Goodwill for the bear we’ve already bought — so sad for her!) She said that he would make a good friend because he looks just like the bear from the Snuggle fabric softener commercials. And we agreed that we were going to say goodbye to Kitty Meow for good.

Let’s hope that really happens this time around!