Maintaining your stuffed animals can sometimes be a challenge. Especially if you want good results and so the Teddy Bear Doctors are rising in popularity.
What is a Teddy Bear Doctor? It is a person to whom you take your teddy bear (or other stuffed animal) for repairs. Most Teddy Bear Doctors can also freshen up a very old stuffie, fix the fur and repair tears and so on.
These are things that you can do yourself too, but some people simply don’t have the time or fear they lack th skills. And sometimes the damage can simply be too big. This is where a professional help is in order.
As it turns out quite a few stuffed animal owners are in need of a teddy bear doctor. Most of them are set up by toy companies. Like the Vermont Teddy Bear Company in Shelburne, Vt. They have a teddy bear doctor in the face of Nancy Robert who was recently interviewed by The New York Times.
“Children have a deep connection with their stuffed animals, so we use the title bear doctor”, Robert says. The company’s toys have a lifetime guarantee so their owners simply have to send the stuffies back when a repair is needed. “During tours of the bear hospital, I wear a lab coat, to give the illusion that I’m a real doctor, and answer their questions”, Robert adds.
The company has had it’s teddy bear hospital for quite a few years now. Nancy started back in 1988 first assembling teddy bears at home. Then she became Nurse Nancy and was helping out the then teddy bear doctors in the repairs.
“Next I was a bear cutter for 15 years, using a hydraulic press to cut out parts of bear patterns. After that I was a bear picker for 10 years, selecting bears from the conveyor belt and outfits for them. I’ve been the official bear doctor for almost two years”, she explains. This means she has quite a lof ot experience under her belt, so you know your Teddy Bear is safe with her.
And her work is not just resewing teddy bears all day. “Some customers are quite imaginative. They’ll write that there’s a problem in the C1 or C2 vertebra, or that the bear injured itself because it hadn’t been doing its yoga routine. One wrote that their bear was allergic to peanuts, and another listed desired meal selections for the bear’s hospital stay”, she says. She has to take the time to respond properly and inform the teddy bear owners of the condition of the patients.
This is on top of the 20 to 25 bears she fixes every day. It is worth it though as you bring joy to someone because we all know what a strong connection you can build with your teddy bear. “I’m mostly in this magical world of childhood and creativity all day. I never know what I’m going to find when I open a box we’ve received”, Robert says.
Other companies too are having Teddy Bear Hospitals. Some workshops are offering such services as well. Remember that you need to find a Teddy Bear Doctor that handles your teddy bears with love and care.
