Number 1
Today's first Puma to join ranks of the elite club is my new stuffed animal I received yesterday as an early birthday gift. I had a feeling that my husband S (as in sneaky!) was going to give me a stuffed puma, but what I had in mind was one of these sleek black Gund varieties I have seen around town (the local high school's mascot is the panther):
But S, being an outdoorsman and animal lover, was after something much more realistic and not quite so cartoon-ish. He net-searched methodically and decided this was the closest man-made replica to the Lord's handiwork:
With her longer front legs and powerful hind legs (for sprangin', naturally), she is very life-like, as the Stuffed Ark website proclaims. And when you pet her (just like what happens with a real puma, I'm sure!!), her head pops back up. Very alert and responsive, indeed. Furthermore, as S pointed out, she's a blond puma...like me!
As she comes from the Aurora Flopsies Collection of bean-filled animals, we are going to call her Au-ROAR-a! Perfect for a Puma, no?
Number 2
My second blond-puma tribute of the day goes out to the precious daughter of my college roommate. She is 2 1/2 years old and infatuated with Diego, Dora the Explorer's cousin, who, in his role as animal rescuer, has actually done shows featuring pumas.
(NOTE: There have been several criticisms of this kids' show for its apparent need to "dumb-down" real-life animal behavior which results in disappointing explanations, if not misinformation. Case in point, in the DVD Moonlight Rescue, Puma's roar, which scares off the tree frogs, is innocently attributed to his "just wanting to sing" in the Rainforest concert.)
This special Puma and I had a brief playdate last month and we pretended to be different animals and make the sounds they do. When she asked me which animal I was, I told her I was a puma, and playfully growled at her. She squealed, "A PUMA!!!", and just loved imitating one too.
Isn't she a cutie?? And what a darling outfit! She, too, gets the honors for her life-like growl! Number 3
The final puma-nod today goes out to another youthful attempt to imitate nature. Check out the beautiful ink job done by this then-four-year-old beauty over at the Big Mama blog (click for full story). Look very closely and you'll see that, more than just straight, flat, parallel lines, her tiger stripes are faithful to the real thing. See how she belts out her roar!
Oh, I'm sure her mama can laugh about "the incident" now. And won't this pic look great in her wedding reception slideshow!!
So, there you have it, Puma fans. Keep your eyes peeled for a special Puma edition of the blog on tomorrow!
Love,
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