Our dog Kyrill, a Cesky Terrier, is a highly affiliative dog. Unlike many terriers, this dog is bred to work in packs. I have spoken with other Cesky owners who all remark that their dogs are real snugglers, wanting to be in their laps the minute the owner sits down. Kyrill is the same way. He weighs 28 pounds, and that is a lot of terrier to have in my lap!
Kyrill also follows me all over the house. He is very observant of routines, and knows that when I stand up in the morning after I have my coffee and I say “Mommy has to go potty”, he races to the bathroom to be there when I arrive. Along the way he also grabs his favorite toy, the pink ball you see in the header photo, so that he can play keep away with me in the bathroom.
Kyrill is highly attached to his ball. He carries it with him whenever he goes outside. He sleeps with it. If it falls off the bed in the middle of the night and rolls under the dresser, a place he can’t reach, he whines until I drag myself out of bed and get it for him. I don’t know what it is about his ball that he loves so much. We have a green one just like it, but he isn’t attached to that one like the pink ball. It wasn’t easy to get it away from him to take the photo.
I don’t know if his ball serves the same function as the security blanket or stuffed animal of a human toddler. I had a favorite blanket that I wouldn’t let my mom wash unless I was asleep. I eventually left it on a fence post on a family vacation bear Two Harbors. Our kids had blankets and favorite stuffed animals. It is important to feel secure when you are small, even if you are a dog.
Did you have a blanket or security object when you were a child? What helps you feel secure these days?
Trail Baboon 
I like an extra pillow when I sleep; I think of it as my “huggy” pillow. It’s not a specific pillow, so I don’t have to take anything with me if I travel. Just an extra pillow that isn’t under my head.
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I have one of those, too!
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I had a stuffed Scottish terrier, or I should say I have one, because my mother kept it in a shoe box and saved it for me for more than 60 years until I wanted it back.
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I have my childhood best friend, an Animal Fair Henry–these days he lives on a shelf in my bedroom instead of on my bed, but he’s right there if I ever need him. I don’t remember exactly when I got him, but I know I’ve had him for almost 50 years.
–Crow Girl
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CG – you might want to read the blog a couple of days ago – New Hires…
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My security blanket was yellow with a satin edging. As a young child I would rub the edging while sucking the 3rd & 4th fingers of my right hand. I still have it somewhere in a box in my garage – the color has faded and the edging is gone.
For my first birthday a great aunt and uncle gave me a fairly small stuffed soft, cuddly brown dog. Its eyes were pieces of black rickrack, the nose was a small round black button (which was re-sewed on a few times), and had a rattle in the bobbed tail. I took it for walks outside (actually just dragged it with a “leash”) and always slept with it. It never had a name except “brown dog” and is gender neutral. It sits on the end of my bed now. Much of the fur has worn off but the rattle still works. If there were a fire in my condo, the dog is the first thing I would grab.
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I had a blanket as a little kid that I literally tore to shreds over the years. I also had a stuffed bear I named “Bruce.” I think it was named aftere one of my dad’s friends . . . for some strange reason.
My daily routine helps me feel secure. A hot cup of coffee and oatmeal in the morning, listening to MPR Classical, reading or doing a crossword puzzle.
Also a warm bed at night next to my wife, food and wine stored in the fridge, freezer, and storage room.
I feel secure most of the time because I’m fortunate to live in a small town in America in the 21st century, so life in general is much safer than many other places in the world. And I don’t take it for granted. This could disappear very quickly if we let our world leaders continue to f**k things up with wars, divisive rhetoric, ignoring climate issues, etc., etc.
Chris in Owatonn
**BSP** Tomorrow morning, 8-2, I’ll be at the Weitz Center for Creativity at Carleton College, Northfield, for the annual Craft Fair and Bake Sale. I participated last year and it was fun. Dozens of vendors of all sorts of goods, a handful of authors, good food and coffee available, in a spacious open setting in the atrium and second floor “mezzanine.”
Saturday, 11-4, I’ll be at Corks & Pints in Faribault for their annual Holiday Bazaar. Not quite so many vendors, but good craft beer and spirits to sample, and some unique gifts, many handmade, that you can browse or purchase.
So if you’ve been wanting a signed copy of one or more of my books to give as a gift, this weekend will be your last two out of three chances before Christmas to make a purchase.
**END BSP**
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Yes, I had a “bankie.” I carried it around with me, and like Renee, struggled with my insecurity when it was being washed.
I had insomnia for about a year when I went through puberty. It was really bad. I just couldn’t sleep at all, and I kept waking my poor mom up. She showed me how to warm up milk. She walked outside in the night with me. Finally she gave up in exhaustion and went back to bed. She told me that if I stopped waking her up for two weeks she would buy me a Snoopy stuffy. So I stopped waking her up and started walking outside by myself at 2 in the morning. I made my own warm milk. I felt sorry and I left her alone. I got the Snoopy and I still have him. He’s pretty beat up these days, and he wears one of those old buttons that says, “I am Loved.”
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I had trouble getting to sleep when I was about 11. Mom would sit on the edge of my bed, and guide me through an exersize of clenching and then releasing each muscle starting with my eyes/face, down to my toes. I don’t think it lasted too awfully long.
Love the idea of walking outside on your own, Krista (well, except in bitter cold) – is it a pleasant or unpleasant memory now?
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It’s pleasant, but a little lonely. It was quite safe in those days. I used to walk about a mile to a bridge and back.
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I have an Opus plushie. He sits on the nightstand next to my bed. He has kept watch over me since 1984 when Mondale was slaughtered by Reagan. Coincidentally, the year is famous for a certain book. Well, maybe not a coincidence.
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I didn’t have a security something… my sister had a “bankie” that had “feel” (satin..) on it. Joel had a stuffed bunny.
I did start to stutter when I was 3 or 4. Mom had read some article that told her to stop what she was doing and pay undivided attention to me. It subsided.
What makes me feel relatively secure these days is a day when I don’t have to be 3 places at a specific time. Also if I’ve just gotten some area of the house clean. Who knows what that’s all about?
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remember back in the old days when you would wash your blanket and it would get all those little pill balls accumulated on the blanket? When I was one or two I wanted to pick the fuzzies off the blanket but I couldn’t pronounce it so they became fubbies. I sat with my fubbie blanket on the couch and picked the balls off, making fist sized wads of blanket as I watch TV when I was less than one I am told I started running because it was easier to keep balance than it was to learn how to walk but side effect was that I would fall on my face and blister my lip by smashing it into the ground, and I developed the habbit of sucking on my lower lip, which the dentist was very upset about and said that I would push my front teeth out and turn them into buck teeth, which I did so my security blanket was picking fubbies and sucking my lip
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I feel a great sense of security having a full pantry with all the cooking and baking supplies we need, as well as our full freezers.
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I just finished the last batch of cookies. Woot.
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Woot for us, too. I now feel secure about the party.
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Big smile!
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I still have a blanket. 🙂
Yeah, that satin edge. Seems like I’ve always been a ‘texture’ person.
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I never had a blankie, and though I did have a very nice English teddy bear, I didn’t sleep with it or carry it around all the time. I did bring it with me to the US. It was stuffed with fine wood shavings, something I discovered when I discovered sawdust all around it. Apparently the heat and humidity in Carbondale was conducive to some tiny insect chewing it’s way into it, and eating it from the inside out. I tried everything to rid my teddy of them, but finally had to admit defeat and incinerate him in the back yard.
My first encounter with the phenomenon of a security blanket was while I was working for the American family in Moscow. Elizabeth, the middle child, who was five at the time, had a raggedy old blue mohair cardigan tblankihat she dragged along wherever she went. It was a sticky, gooey mess. After putting the kids to bed after my first day on the job, I tossed this disgusting rag in the washer. After tumbling it dry in the dryer, it was clean but staticky. The following morning Elizabeth had a melt-down when she discovered her newly laundered, staticky “blankie.” “You’ve ruined my
blankie,” she wailed. Fortunately it didn’t take long for her blankie to return to its former disgusting state, and by then, I knew better than to wash and dry her blankie.
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Rise and Shine,Baboons,
I sucked my thumb, probably way past when I should have. I remember giving it up when everyone became concerned that my front teeth (permanent ones) were coming in crooked because of the thumb-sucking. I had one doll I played with a bit, but I don’t remember that giving security. I think my dad was my security “object.” My mother and I were having relationship difficulties early, early on in my life and I would not cooperate with her. So I would pack my suitcase with the yellow Howdy Doody records, and take my stick horse and run away to Dad’s office at the end of the block. I would wait for him to return then tell him my troubles. He would advise me on how to resolve it and how to get along with mom, then take me home, after I would promise to try whatever he advised. I loved it when he would explain to me how the world worked, including getting along with mom. This worked quite well until he became ill. Then the entire family was a mess for a time.
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Good for your dad, while that lasted.
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So have you bought a duplicate pink ball for a replacement, Renee – in case something drastic happens to this one?
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I remember my sister also had an imaginary friend named Alexander – we had to make room for him at the table, and in the car on a road trip…
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I remember when blankets were typically edged with that satin blanket binding at the top. I think I still have some of that binding with the sewing supplies I inherited from my mother.
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Always loved this book.
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