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We were very fortunate at the Salvation Army; everyone was welcoming and helped us find a place in the very cramped storage boxes.

The dolls befriended some other teenage dolls and they disappeared talking about past experiences and previous owners. I went for a wander round and past the mass of clothing rails, shelving units and bookcases was a very pretty trestle table where 3 China dolls stood upon it, it was easily the best location in the shop at they were high up out of reach and could see out of the windows.

They all seemed friendly enough and introduced themselves

Lucy – was dressed as little red riding hood, complete with a basket of fruit. She had long black ringleted hair and huge brown eyes.
Mollie – the smallest of the three dolls, wears a pretty blue dress and hat, has light brown hair and a smiley face.
Amber – the tallest of the group and easily the most attractive with her big blue eyes and long blonde crimped hair.

I’d been talking to the dolls for around 20 minutes when a grouchy voice shouted

“They don’t actually care son.”

In shock I turned to see an old rabbit teddy with an ear missing. The dolls began to tut and told me not to listen to Doug as he could be rather surly. I climbed down from the dolls table and made my way over to Doug.

“So you’re new here ‘eh?” Said Doug in his deep gruff voice.

He made me feel a bit uneasy, with a voice as rough and deep as his you couldn’t tell if he was being genuine or not.

“Yeah I was donated, I feel a bit lost actually” Came my rather feeble reply. I was hoping that he’d take pity on me. He did.

“Its not bad here, you know?” he said, I think he must have sensed that I felt rather down after losing my home. “Everyone gets on well, occasionally the odd spat breaks out but then you cant have nice all the time can you?”

From that I got the feeling that most of the spats in some way involved him but I didn’t say anything.

“So how you feeling?” Doug continued.

“It just seems weird, you know?” I began, more thinking out loud than talking “ This morning I was at home, where I’ve always been, I had no idea that this might happen.”

Doug nodded.

“Now I’m here, I just feel more bewildered than anything, its like a strange dream.”

Doug laughed “well you just need to give yerself a few days, y’all soon settle in. Least there’s them others with you.”

I stood for some time chatting to Doug, he told me a bit about his past, how he lost his ear etc. He told me how happy he was here and that it was a nice place. I looked around me and I could see he was right. Everybody was chatting, introducing themselves, making friends. Doug said having new toys is a regular occurrence and pretty soon we’ll be part of the furniture as it were, he said the new ones are never the newest for long.
I felt much more comfortable and settled after speaking to Doug, I realised that I could be here for some time and that I just needed to make the best of it before I got re-homed again.
(Little did I know how long I’d be here for!)

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I’ll keep this post as brief as possible, I do occasionally waffle I’m afraid.

Some years ago now, one of Marie’s friends, a rather ham-handed child called Kimberley pulled my left arm off during one of my weddings to a doll with multi-coloured hair.

Marie had wandered into the kitchen and was not aware that I’d just had my arm wrenched off. In a panic Kimberley hid me in some storage boxes in the back of the cupboard under the stairs where I remained for 6 months.

It was incredibly lonely in there, on several occasions I tried to escape but with one arm missing it was impossible.

Until Marie’s father Derek, found me and tried to mend my arm with some super glue which did just the trick…. in rendering my arm completely immobile and stuck down at my side… I still detest that man to this day for his so called ‘help’

Upon presenting me to Marie with a “look what I’ve found” I hoped that all would go back to whatever normal was and I could continue my life as one of the dolls husbands. To be honest id been so lonely stuck in the storage box that anything would be preferable as long as I had some company.

But Marie had other plans, she couldn’t have cared less that I’d been missing in action for 6 months and was even less impressed at the fact that her father had ‘fixed’ me, so as her father left the room Marie inspected my rigid arm, tutted and quickly tossed me to one side and I was therefore rendered useless. I was occasionally played with as an ‘extra’ as they’re called on TV, usually a guest at one of the many dolls weddings. In that time I began to speak to other ‘extras’ such as the group of baby dolls that Marie no longer bothered with and they were pretty much resigned to the fact that they were no longer the chosen ones and that ‘their time in the sun’ was long gone.

I became very sad and withdrawn about this, primarily due to the fact that when I was hidden in the cupboard Id built up the day I was found in my head to be something along the lines of the day Anastasia became a princess and found her place again (yes I know, I hung around with the dolls far too much.)

So when Marie’s mother was cleaning one day and muttered

“God she has so many toys in here and hardly any of them are bothered with”

I was thrilled! Finally some recognition for the little guy! I was expecting her mother to frog march Marie into her room and tell her that she must start treating all her toys equally and that many were being neglected and bullied by the current popular toy.

Nothing on earth prepared me for what happened. The following day Marie’s harridan of a mother came marching into the bedroom armed with bags and boxes. Immediately everyone began to run for cover and whispering

“She’s got a bag, hide!”

The animal family shut up shop in their little houses and tree, the baby dolls hid under the covers of their pram, some of the more loved toys sat trying to give an air of nonchalance, convinced that they were safe. I watched from behind the pony stables wondering what in the world was happening and why everyone suddenly had began to freak out.

Then it became clear, the toy box lid was flung open and mass amounts of bears, plushies and dolls were being chucked into bags as though they were nothing, the baby dolls including the pram were carried downstairs and into the car, as well as some of the worse for wear fashion dolls . Just when I thought I was safe, Marie’s mother had a double check, and unfortunately I was unable to move in time and was subsequently bagged up with 2 of the little ponies that had had their hair cut and styled a-la Kimberley.

I don’t remember much about the journey other than mass panic and the question -Where is she taking us? was at the forefront of everyones mind.

It turned out that we were going to many different places firstly the dolls and their pram were re-homed with a small girl who looked thrilled to see them, so at least that ended well (as far as i am aware), some of the bears that still had their eyes, ears and feet attached were donated to a children’s hospital, unfortunately some of the more broken and well worn plushies weren’t as lucky

At 3.35pm myself, the 3 dolls, and the little ponies were dropped off at the Salvation army, completely unknowing that that was to be our new home.. I was in virgin territory and had no idea what to expect.

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Well hello there, this is to be my very first entry of what I’ve been told is called a ‘blog’. So I should introduce myself.

My name is Danny; I was made in the mid ’90′s and bought as a birthday gift for a 6 year old girl called Marie.

Marie wasn’t overly impressed with receiving me as a present and to be honest I wasn’t exactly thrilled at my new role of being the female dolls sidekick/boyfriend. I’d always hoped to become an army style doll for a boy rather than a husband for one of Marie’s many dolls (oh, believe me there were many) but enough about that for the moment, that was a long time ago and things are different now.

I currently reside in a Salvation Army charity shop, which if I’m honest is quite lovely, I’ve been one of the longest residents here (2 1/2 years now) along with a rabbit teddy which is missing an ear called Doug. Doug and I had a rocky start when I was donated to the store and he was incredibly territorial. He’d been given to the store as an unwanted raffle prize 2 years earlier and a small child had got hold of him from the jumble sale table n pulled off his ear. He’s always been bitter about that day and completely loathes children now, ensuring that during opening hours he hides well out of the way under the large pile of linen and bedding that people don’t really tend to look at.

So I suppose you’re wondering why I am writing a blog? Well if I’m honest I’m just very bored and want to tell my story. I was thrilled when Jean (one of the many shop assistants) had bought in her new laptop as a way of checking in new stock. After a few weeks of learning to use the Internet and reading up on how I create a ‘blog’ I thought I’d give it a go.

Oh god I’ve got to go, I can hear Doug arguing with Percy, a toy phone with a broken bell which means he ‘dings’ every time he moves. He’s pretty new to the store and as always Doug’s laying down the law….. I’ll post more later.

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