Dragon Innards are Yucky!

I am an insane Mama. If there was ever any doubt of it, today proved it.

So, the story begins last summer when my dear sis, Tammy, bought a giant stuffed dragon for my son. This thing is as tall as me. "Cool!" says child. "Problem" thinks mama. Besides the fact that the thing takes up so much space -- the big problem was the stuffing. It is one of those carnival animals stuffed which is packed styrofoam. They are not soft and hugable -- and they almost always burst, spilling styrofoam all over the place.

So I was not surprised when last week my son came to tell me that the dragon was in trouble. The seams on two sides had split and it was leaking bits of white styrofoam. My son, who absolutely hates messes, was quite disturbed by this. I patiently explained the problem and let him know we would have to get rid of the dragon. He looked up at me with that wonderful adoring smile and said, "But Mama, I know you can fix him." I explained that while I could sew up the rips, it would just burst in another area since it was the stuffing that was the problem. "Mama, couldn't you take out the bad stuffing and put in good stuffing?" Uhh, I guess. Because my son adores dragons, fairies and all things magical, I told him I would try to save the dragon.

So today, fuzzydragon and I were done with mead racking and decided to "gut the dragon." We got out the Kirby vacuum and went to work. It clogged the tube and filled the bag almost immediately. So we went and got the industrial wet/dry vacuum. Oh, my, gawd -- you have never seen a mess quite like it. The dragon was stuffed with very small white particles of styrofoam which flew everywhere and stuck to everything. It looked like it was snowing in my son's room! Our clothes were covered, our hair was covered, the floor, the walls, the furniture, the vacuums. I don't know how many trash bags of styrofoam we took out of there. We giggled manically while we worked. Our crazy laughter was so disturbing that the rest of the folks downstairs had to come look. uncledark took pictures.

Several hours later and the room is as clean as I can get it for now. Though I think we will be vacuuming up bits of dragon guts for some time. I even had to vacuum my hair. The clothes are in the wash. And the dragon is ready to be stuffed with nice soft polyfill. So if you have any bags of polyfill around, we could use it.

Dragon Rescue Fund -- because the dragon will require a lot of filling, I am asking that if folks are willing, to please donate to the dragon rescue fund. airshipjones is out of work right now, but I would like to get the dragon fixed before my son gets back. So let me know if you want to help.

Photos available at: http://pics.livejournal.com/purplerabbit/gallery/0000k7ge