Keeping it in the family

Husband2be and I have become "those people" who call their pets their children. I KNOW. I never thought I would become one of "them" but it's happened and I have no idea how. You know what? I've learned not to fight the flow. I'm going with it. But as with anything, you can't always take it too far.

For as much as we'd like to have our cat AND our dog in the wedding, it's not going to happen. It would be... interesting? But, I'm not so interested (or obsessed) with making such a statement that would inspire some serious chaos. The two of them can barely be in the same room together let alone walk down the aisle for something so serious as a WEDDING.So in an effort to include, we are planning to have their likenesses represented in the form of plush animals that the two littlest members of the wedding party shall "escort."

A couple of months ago I was lucky enough to find a plush cat on ebay right around the time of Halloween (so convenient) that looks just like our all black cat!!! Here is a picture from the ebay listing.

I'm not sure that I ever took/posted a picture of the actual plush cat that I got but it's very much like our lovely "little girl." My only complaint is that the tail is this weird shape like that of a beaver - wide and short. *shrug* It's a small thing that is not worth fussing about in my opinion.

And then there's our lovely "baby boy" who we just adopted a month or so ago. He's a German Shepherd and can I just tell you what a time I've had trying to find a good plush animal that represents his likeness accurately??? You'd think that German Shepherds were common enought that I wouldn't have such a problem. Well... think again.

But alas - Earlier this week I was finally successful!!! StuffedArk.com has an extensive inventory of all kinds of animals and even a couple of different variations of plush German Shepherds! It's down to these two for me:



The top one comes in only a 12" version but our little ring bearer who will be holding it might not look right with something larger. It's $15.50 plush S/H but from what I've seen, that's a pretty decent price.
The bottom one is a lot more accurate in the coloring to our "baby boy" but it doesn't come in 12" and rather 16" or "10". The cat that I got is 12" so that wouldn't make any sense since the dog is already bigger than the cat. The 16" version would be $18.50 plus S/H but that's the best one for us so far, I think.
Whatever we end up with, I think using the plush animals will work well for us. The littlest flower girl will be carrying the cat and she is only 1.5 and the littlest ring bearer will be 3.5 and he will be carrying the "puppy." The two older ones will be carrying the traditional ring bearer pillow and flower girl basket. I will at least be tying ribbons on the plush animals to make them a little more decorative/"wedding-y."