Felix, the Little Foundling Bear - a story for all stuffed-animal fans

Felix, the Little Foundling Bear
A story for children big and small - written by mowi19


 
Felix, a sweet little stuffed bear, was placed, like many of his brothers and sisters, on the shelf of a
toy store, and one day he found his new home there. A mother bought him for her little boy. He looked very sweet, with his fluffy blue outfit, the cheeky pointed cap with one ear peeking out from it, and his smile was simply enchanting. No one could resist him. On top of that, he was wonderfully soft and cuddly, simply lovable.
 
And so Felix—as he had named himself—ended up one day with Friederike, little Stefan’s mom. Stefan often felt alone, especially when he was laid in his little bed and his mom left the room. He longed for his true home, the place where he had still been an angel.
 
He found being human very exhausting and difficult. His body felt heavy, sometimes quite wet and sticky, and there was a constant rumbling in his tummy. At least sometimes his mom came and gave him something to drink. Then the rumbling went away for a while. Well, Stefan truly felt very lonely. As lonely as every little baby feels when it enters this world and first has to find its way in it.
 
One day Friederike came and placed little Felix in her son’s bed. Oh … Stefan felt something soft and cuddly against his face. It gave him a little sense of warmth and security. And his face began to shine, his eyes beamed at his mom.
 
The little light-blue bear looked at him kindly from Friederike’s hand. And he heard it whisper softly: “I am your new companion; from now on you are no longer alone. I will be with you day and night, warm you and comfort you when you are sad.”
 
Stefan took cuddly Felix in his hands and felt him from all sides. He chewed on him and gave him his boundless love … Now he was finally no longer alone, oh what joy!
 
It was very soothing for Stefan to chew on Felix’s pointed cap before he fell asleep. The taste and smell of his cuddly friend became more familiar to him day by day. Yes, by now the little bear was so charged with Stefan’s love energy that he seemed very alive to him.
 
One day something happened that made Stefan deeply sad. During a walk along the Danube,
Felix tumbled out of the stroller and was left lying on the path along the way. No one noticed this loss, neither Stefan nor his mom Friederike. She was deep in conversation with her friend, and so Felix remained lying on the path. Friederike and Stefan moved farther and farther away until they could no longer be seen.
 
“Oh … HELP…!!” cried the little bear Felix. He felt terribly lonely there on the path all by himself. But no one could hear him, because only little Stefan understood his language.
 
After what felt like an endless time, Felix felt a passerby take him in their hands … look at him and lay him on a bench. Oh dear, how would he ever be found here? How would he get back to Stefan?
 
But things turned out differently than little stuffed bear Felix expected in his great fear – completely differently.
Suddenly he felt something that seemed very familiar to him … they were very special feelings of love. Oh, it was not the same love as Stefan’s, but very similar. What did that mean? What would happen to him now?
 
Yes, he felt it immediately: this person with such great love for teddy bears like him took him along. It was a woman, and he heard her being called Moni. Moni gently placed him in a basket on her bicycle, stroked him once more beforehand, and promised him she would look for his owner.
 
Oh, what joy! Would he really return to Stefan? For surely Stefan must feel very lonely without him…
 
For now, Felix enjoyed the ride on the bicycle. It was so wonderfully soft here, and he could see the Danube, all the walkers they met, and also Moni. He also sensed that Moni understood him. She understood the language of stuffed bears! Wow! Moni spoke with Felix and comforted him: “Soon you will be back with the child whose energy you carry. You will find each other, and I will help you.”
 
Those were wonderful prospects! Yes, Moni knew very well that stuffed animals take on the love energy of their owners. She also knew that children feel this as if the stuffed animal were a part of themselves. Felix felt that she knew it… because he felt something that most adults had lost … the child within her.
 
Suddenly he was interrupted in his daydreams, because Moni gently took him out of the bicycle basket. She took a few photos of Felix so she would not forget him, and then it was time to say goodbye.
 
Both were already a little sad to part, because indeed - Moni had briefly toyed with the idea of keeping Felix. But she did not have the heart to separate two friends for life. She knew what that felt like. And so she now handed Felix over to the lost-and-found office. Friederike would be able to pick him up there, and Stefan would be able to hold his beloved little stuffed bear in his arms again.
 
One last short farewell greeting of love, and Felix found himself among bags, wallets, scarves and … oh what joy - other stuffed animals were gathered here too, waiting for their owners.
 
Freddy was the first one he noticed, because he was lying right next to him. Freddy was a big tiger and looked very loved. But he was sad, very sad indeed, because his beloved Mandy, his owner, had left him behind in an ice-cream café a few weeks earlier. Now he believed Mandy did not want him anymore. And the chance of a new owner was extremely small…
 
Freddy and Felix now excitedly told each other their stories. And so they both learned how different human children can be. Each one was lovable in its very own special way, and each human child loved their stuffed animal as a part of themselves. Was it the same for the other stuffed animals too? The answer came immediately, almost as soon as the two of them asked themselves this question.
 
A murmur began in the lost-and-found office. Only now did Felix and Freddy see that many other stuffed animals were waiting for their owners, and some had already given up hope of ever being loved as much again as they were used to.
 
A night passed in which Felix felt terribly lonely. There was no soft little bed available for him to sleep in, only a hard box with many other found items into which he had been thrown carelessly. If Freddy had not at least been lying beside him, he would really have felt like crying…
 
Another day passed, another night, and Felix became quieter and quieter. He noticed that he was slowly losing the love energy he still carried from Stefan.
 
But suddenly it felt as if he were waking from a dream. He felt something familiar – it was the
hand of a woman. No, it was not Friederike, but her friend Karin. She actually recognized Felix - his chewed-up pointed cap was, after all, an unmistakable identifying feature.
 
After a brief conversation with the woman at the lost-and-found office, Karin then put him in her bag and went out onto the street. Outside, Friederike was already waiting with Stefan. What joy! The reunion of the two - Stefan and Felix - was indescribable! Stefan held Felix very tightly, as if he never wanted to let him go again. Yes, he even got a ribbon around his neck so he could not fall out of the stroller again.
 
Happy about the reunion, the story could end here, couldn’t it?
 
But there were still Freddy the tiger and all the other stuffed animals spending their lonely existence in the
lost-and-found office. Should they stay there forever and never feel the love of a child again? No, because everything turned out completely differently - fortunately.
 
One day a woman came in, put all the stuffed animals from the lost-and-found office into a bag, and took them with her. Oh dear, what was going to happen now? Freddy and the other cuddly companions woke up and wondered where their journey would take them…
 
Well, it did not take long before they got the answer to their secret question. After a longer ride in the car, the woman who had taken them along placed all the stuffed animals together in a basket. That alone already felt good, because it was no longer as cold and uncomfortable here as it had been in the box before. This basket stood in a large room. So large that Freddy and his friends were amazed.
 
And suddenly the door opened and many children rushed in. They all called out excitedly at once and even argued sometimes because some of them wanted the same stuffed animal.
 
“Ouch,” cried Freddy, “that hurts!”
 
The child who was tugging at him suddenly let go of Freddy, because hurting him was the last thing they wanted. The child had no choice but to look around for another stuffed animal – and found one too. A soft white polar bear had captured the child’s heart; it no longer looked completely new, so it was just right. It was love at first sight.
 
And so each of the stuffed animals found a new loving home. Yes, it was even more loving than they had ever experienced! For all these children no longer had parents. And so they gave all their love … to their stuffed animal.
 
How happy they were now … the children just as much as Freddy and all the other lost cuddly friends who had found the best new home there is. None of them ever needed to feel lonely again. From then on, they were all allowed to sleep in a soft little bed and feel the unconditional love of a human child… Dreams were coming true here!
 
Did Felix have it just as good, I wonder?
 
And what about you? Do you know that your cuddly friend carries your energy, that he belongs to you unconditionally, with all his love for you? Take him in your arms … and you will feel it!
 
 
© Copyright and notes:
Author: Monika Wiermann (mowi19).
The photo was taken by the author herself.
If you like this little story, feel free to share the link to this page. Copying the text and publishing it on other platforms or sites is expressly not permitted.
If you send me a PM (mowi19), I will be happy to send you the story as a PDF to print out, so you can read it to your children or grandchildren. Of course, I am also happy to receive feedback. :-)

What a delightful story, dear Monika!

I’m glad you like it. :) Thanks for the feedback, Mel!

A beautiful story. My grandson has a bunny. He can’t do without it. My daughter still has her Simba today. Both stuffed animals look very well-loved.

A lovely ending to your story.
Warm regards
Petra

That’s a really beautiful story, written so lovingly—even as an adult, you could easily imagine yourself in that situation, as if you were part of the story yourself. I think it’s really great.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any of my old stuffed animals from back then anymore, but the doll I got when
I was 9 still exists. She just needs a few new things.

What a beautiful story—thanks for sharing :-)
We’ve experienced something similar and wrote down Trudi’s story for our granddaughter 

Oh, thank you—I’m glad you like the story. :)
I experienced part of it myself… up until the lost-and-found office. I wrote the ending myself. And I really hope that Felix found his way back to Stefan. The photo was taken back when I found Felix. It was actually hard for me to give him up.

When I was little, I had a teddy bear that looked pretty ragged. At some point, my mom wanted to throw it into the fire. I remember those feelings well... it was as if a part of me was being rejected. And even today, I’m still attached to my favorite teddy bears.

Hand-knitted or crocheted stuffed animals are something truly special. They also contain the love of the person who made them.

a wonderful story. I love teddy bears—I design and sew them myself all the time. Each of my grandchildren has at least 3–4 from me, and every year I sew a batch of teddy bears for our children’s charity. Even my grown daughters still take one or two home from time to time.
My oldest still has the little bear I gave her when she was 9 months old—she’s 49 now. The other two also still have the cuddly toys I gave them when they were babies.

What a lovely story, Monika!

Edith, maybe you’ll tell us your story about Trudi, too?

Yes, Edith, I’m interested in the story about Trudi too. :)

A really wonderful, touching story that I enjoyed very much.

My son had a stuffed dog named Rex that he carried around with him for a long time, until our real dog bit off its nose. I patched it up as best I could, but for my son, it just wasn’t the same anymore; now Rex sits on a shelf in his room and watches him while he studies.

Thank you, Akela, Ruth, and Sofi!

Oh dear, a dog without a nose... that must have really hurt your son, Sofi.

Akela, it turns out you’re just as big a fan of bears as I am. Since I spent a lot of time in the hospital during my first year of life, that was a very important source of comfort for me back then—my first great love, so to speak. :)

Our daughter’s (13) favorite stuffed animal is a “Tigger.” We had actually bought him for our son (now almost 20) when he was born, but he never showed any interest in him. When our daughter was born, we placed Tigger on top of the railing of her crib. When she was about 2 or 3 months old, he fell into the crib at night, and in the morning she was holding him tightly in her arms. He’s been with her ever since.
When our daughter was about a year old, we hiked up the Drachenfels in Königswinter. She lost her “Tigger” there, and we didn’t notice until we were almost at the top. We immediately rushed back down, and about halfway down, someone had placed him on a fence. The feeling of finding him again was a huge relief for all of us!
She still has him in her bed every night and can’t fall asleep without him. The little guy has so many patches on him by now, but I wouldn’t even think of getting rid of him.

Dear Monika, you’ve written such a cute story.

We’re also stuffed animal fans, and one of the highlights of last year was our visit to the “Bamse Museum” (Teddy Bear Museum) in Skagen, Denmark—it’s designed with such love.

Monika

you’re really multitalented—you’re not only great at knitting and crocheting.
Now you’re writing wonderful stories, too. Very nice!!!

Mel, that’s such a lovely story about your daughter and Tigger.

Petra, a teddy bear museum would be right up my alley, too. I also have some older Steiff bears that I love very much. In Lindau on Lake Constance, there’s a toy store that also displays interesting old stuffed animals. It’s set up almost like a museum.

Yes, Marion, as an author, you have many talents—not just writing patterns. I love being creative in every way. Even when I’m cooking. :-)

I was really happy to receive your feedback. Thank you so much for that!

Monika, that really is a touching story! Thank you so much for sharing it. And yes, you’re truly multi-talented!
Mel, I also love the story about the tiger!
Our youngest grandson (10 months) is just starting to discover stuffed animals—I’m curious to see what stories come from that!



Speaking of stuffed animals and their friends:
Isidor, an old Steiff bear, came to me from an antique shop as a Christmas gift from my daughter, who’s just as big a bear fan as the rest of us… Isidor also looks pretty well-loved and a bit worn!

Thanks, Wollbaerli! :)

At 10 months, the little ones are so sweet and cuddly... there’s still so much to discover.
We’ll be experiencing that again, and our next grandchild is due in May.

Oh, your Isidor is such a cutie. He looks a lot like the first teddy bear I had as a child. Unfortunately, I don’t have him anymore.

Maybe others here will share what they’ve experienced with their stuffed animals. I’d be very interested in that. In a way, we’re all still children at heart. :)

Best, Monika