Mugs

TWO THOUSAND STUFFED ANIMALS RESCUED!

I was working at Mattel as a toy designer in 1986 when one day I stopped at a garage sale. There, face down in the grass, were a couple of worn out stuffed animals. ‘How sad’, I thought. These toys had ‘brought up’ a kid and now they were being cast aside. I think they cost a dime each. I bought both. On my way back I stopped at other garage sales and by the time I got home I had bought maybe twenty-five ‘well-loved’ animals. I set them up around the house and went about my business. Later, when I just happened to look over in their direction I could swear that they were all smiling.

I was hooked. Months went by and by the time I finished ‘rescuing’ I had collected over 2000 characters. What I did next got me (and them) a full page picture an the Sunday Los Angeles Times.

This little MUGS book contains some of their pictures and short stories I wrote about each of them.