#gund

Source ~ GUND

It's been a little while since I told a story about a Gund Muttsy (spellings may vary). There are a lot of them out there, each with there own story, and well loved by their person.

Here's an image of a vintage one:

Of course, by the time they get to me, the leather has worn through on their paws, or the fur has compressed, or they're balding. They're pretty thin to begin with and they get really skinny as they're hugged over the years as well.

The most recent Mutsy to visit the hospital came from New York and had an interesting balding pattern. Here are his diagnosis photos:

His footpads were surviving quite well, and he has that one inner leg that's in great shape (there's also healthy fur inside an ear) but most of him was very bald. It was important to keep as much original as possible, including the well loved eyes and nose, but to treat the balding so he could continue to go on adventures with his 8 year old human. There were concerns that he'd be too different (they didn't want him to look new) so while the plan was to recover him everywhere he was bald and give him new stuffing, I agreed to send photos after the first new fur was on for approval. If they didn't like it, I'd take it off, no harm, no foul.

There were several fur options:

I also sent swatches so they could feel the fabrics. They chose a furry fleece because it was a very good color match, and visually in between his surviving long fur and his bald skin.

Meanwhile, he got restuffed with his heart of original fabric:

Here is the first "ok to continue?" photo:

That's all one panel of fabric. The answer was "Looks good!" so surgery proceeded.

And here he is all better, ready to fly home:

His family wrote:

"B and I were so impressed with Mutsy’s restoration. Musty hasn’t been put down since he arrived home. (By B or me)