For this week’s post, I am choosing an object that is relatively new to my object collection–well, I don’t know if I can really include it in my own, since it was a gift for someone else. Nonetheless, it is the most recent item I have purchased and, though it does not have a long meaningful history, I hope that its future will.

Since I was a kid, I have had an infatuation with stuffed animals. It stemmed from my desire to own every single pet possible, but due to limited space in my home, I was only able to own a hamster of my own. To compensate, I bought a stuffed animal nearly every time I went into a store.

Now, being that I am much older, you may think I’d grown out of this habit. It’s true, I no longer pick one up every time I’m shopping, due to the fact that I am my own financially stable individual and now have to buy them for myself. However, for some momentous occasions, my mom still buys me one, for the sake of contributing to my collection and for keeping me young. When I moved into college, my mom bought me a stuffed elephant, an object that I keep close to me and still have here at school with me today. It brings me comfort and always provides me with a tiny reminder of my mom while I’m away and missing her.

The object I am focusing on, however, is not my stuffed elephant. Rather, it is a stuffed husky, from the same brand, that I bought my boyfriend for Valentine’s Day this year. Buying it for him, I had the same mentality that my mom did when she bought my elephant: that it would serve as a tiny reminder of me while we are away from each other. Plus, huskies are his favorite dogs, so that’s a bonus.

The company both stuffed animals come from is called Aurora. They are a popular brand on Amazon that people buy stuffed animals from. They were established in 1981 in California. A lot of their products are sold out of places such as zoos and high-end toy stores to appeal to “animal lover” crowds. Their toys are created, for the most part, to closely resemble life-like versions of the animals. The toys are made of safe, authentic materials, making them safe for young kids to play with. They are also made with extremely soft materials, again creating a resemblance to the real life version of these animals, just on a much smaller scale.

When I purchased the object, the process it had to go through was likely quite simple, being that it is a mass produced object. The particular stuffed husky that I bought probably came from a warehouse. For this reason, I do not feel as connected to the production/transportation of the object, seeing that I am the first person to have owned it, prior to my boyfriend. It does not have a rich history like my Claddagh ring did, where I can trace it’s origin back into my family line. However, I am hoping that the future of this stuffed husky will be rich. I want him to hold onto it for awhile, as a reminder of me, and see if it eventually ends up in the hands of someone else, who will be the first to be able to tell the story of its journey.