Out of Cryo

Tiberius has a weak patch on his back. It developed after Master Pravus accidentally dropped a candle on there, and he stayed up all night with him once, ironing out the wax slowly. (If you put a paper grocery bag over the wax, and set an iron to low, you can sometimes save the plushie.) Tiberius was indeed saved, but at the cost of his back having a weak patch in it. Before the move, he developed a hole in his spine over the spot where the wax was dripped. The hole developed something like a couple years after the wax dripped, but up until that point, we had never actually opened up his back. Well, I had to decide whether or not to do his stuffing change before all of the move, or to wait until after the whole move was over and done with, and I wasn’t so sure about doing it first. I mean, he was going to have to sit in storage and he might just need another stuffing change after the move anyway. So I waited.

Upon arrival it took a while to unbox him, and Master Pravus moved him into Cryo. (The term he lovingly told Roninald, his lover, for putting Tiberius into the coat closet!) Putting him into Cryo made me antsy though, because it wasn’t completely sealed off for the first few months (it’s all fixed up now, but the door wasn’t perfectly well insulated, and I got scared about whether or not any bugs could have possibly crawled up into his back or something. >.< I don’t like bugs. >.< So that basically means that I went way too long to get him out of cryo out of fear.

I decided it had been long enough. Ron has been a little shit to everyone he has met, including to my Dragon, the one time he met them! (Gawd!) But you know, Ron hadn’t been the same since Ronberius went into storage. And honestly, if Master Pravus had gone away for two years for some reason, I might be a shit to everyone I met too. (Not that it excuses the behaviour, but Ron is a toy! Wait. I am also a toy… Wait. Hmm. What was I saying?) Anyway, in order to fix Ron, I had to fix Ronberius! So the first thing I did was get out my surgical tools.*

This is how he came out of Cryo. Yep, his back was opened. I had to do a complete stuffing change, and sew up his back. On top of that: Tiberius never got a heart! Every stuffie I’ve ever had receives a heart, but only once they’ve been opened up once. So plushies like Reddiboi who have never needed surgery don’t have a heart.. Whereas plushies like Applepig and Zandor The Magnificent do have hearts. More on this later. So, Tiberius needed a heart transplant too. Master Pravus promised me something special out of his treasure box for the Heart Transplant! But first, I had to change Tiberius’ stuffing.

It probably took me an hour to take all the fluff out of him. Oh boy there was a lot in there, and I trashed it all. It was old and ready for replacement. And there were two types! Bleh! So out they went! (I am happy to report: not one bug, of course! Ha!)

Here’s a completely deflated image of Tiberius. I thought he looked hilarious deflated like that. 🙂 I washed him but he’s too delicate to go in the dryer, so I left him out on the drying rack overnight to get dry. The next day I stuffed him up all fluffy, taking breaks in between stuffing. (It’s a lot of work. Tiberius is nearly 4′ long! (My favorite body pillow.)

Here he is about midway stuffed. Griswold oversaw his anesthesia (using Frog’s Breath, of course.) He couldn’t feel a thing, and was completely asleep I assure you!

Here’s the heart Master Pravus gave me to put into Tiberius. It’s called a Demon Core. I slipped it in before stitching him shut.

Here he is all done, and back to his usual lazy-eyed self! He’s pretty adorable. Ron stayed by his side day and night until he was well enough to be on his own, but now he comes to bed with me as a body pillow again. I missed having him in the bed with me. I’m so glad I could finally get him all fixed up. 🙂

*Not actual surgical tools. Not a real medical professional. I am only qualified to perform surgeries on stuffed animals.