Plushed animal jokes

"I'm sorry, I can't because you never bought me a Scooby Dog," my teenage daughter said to explain why she hadn't taken out the garbage. It became a family joke and an excuse for almost anything.

Years later when we lived on different continents, one of her friends called to say he knew the Scooby joke. He had just seen a Scooby in Quincy Market.

"Buy it," I said not knowing that my daughter had been next to him when he called me.

He bought it.

As an adult, she still took scoob everywhere including when she moved in with me in Switzerland having completed her degree.

She ran with the Hash Harriers once a week. While she was out I would take Scoob and place him in bed, ironing, in the bidet, cooking, anything I could think of.

Fast forward a decade plus. My daughter was once again living with me in Switzerland after finishing another degree, this one in Scotland.

We told my husband. He started taking Scoob around on bus rides, to restaurants, historical sites.

My former housemate took him to her chalet with lots of photos on the way.

We came up with a scenario. My husband had bought me a stuffed plush cougar. I am older than he is. We created an affair. Petite Cougar (PC) ended up pregnant. Scooby left her and we added a smaller Scooby, a real handful. Lots of adventures.

Then other animals crept into our menagerie:

• Honey Bunny
• Herr Hare
• Thé Noir
• Miel
• Shamrock, the transgender lobster from Boston
• Sanders, the Bern Bear
• Slap, the Canadian Beaver

We continued to take photos of them in various adventures. Giggles was added when a reunion between PC and Scooby Senior failed. Giggles was born.

But Slap and PC fell in love and we held a wedding on the church steps with human guests coming back to the house for wedding cake and champagne.

The adventures continued.

Then the friend who waters our plants while we are away got into the act. When ever we come back the animals are hiding in closets and/or up to mischief.

Now we are in Scotland and our house sitters sent photos of Honey and Herr looking out the window. The sitters said they had to show them our Facebook pages to convince them we were really okay.

What is fascinating is how people get involved from the lady watching Scoob get an ATM withdrawal and asked "Do you want to tell me about it" to the waiter at the restaurant that took Shamrock and returned him on a plate with a lemon slice and a bit of parsley.

Yes, it is childish, but there's is nothing wrong in keeping a bit of fun in life. May we never grow up.