Bears and Repairs

One of the programmes we love watching on television is The Repair Shop, with Mr Jay and all his clever friends who fix broken and worn out old things that matter to people.  

After watching the Christmas episodes with us, Old Bunny and Nutley Squirrel asked if they could go on it.

'The fur on my ears is all worn, dusty and dirty,' said Bunny.  'And my dress is threadbare, while poor Nutley has lost some sawdust stuffing and can't hold his head up properly.

We had seen how the Bear Ladies cleaned old bears and other precious stuffies, so we asked Polar if we could help her do the same for Old Bunny.

 

'I'll make some soapy suds with the little bit of shampoo left in this bottle,' said Hanley, adding a drop of water and then shaking it furiously.

Waverley cleaned the back of Bunny's ears very carefully with a ball of cotton wool and the suds but, when he started to do the middle of her ears, he found the cloth was all rotten.

 

'Oh no, I've made things worse!' he cried.

'Don't worry, little Waverley,' said Polar.  'Bunny knows you didn't mean to hurt her and we can make her better.  We have some beige felt that your Aunty Tina gave us for making bear clothes that we can use to make new inner ears for her, and we can give her a new felt nose too, to cover up the thin cloth there.'

Endon, who has a cousin called Repair Bear, helped Polar with Bunny's ear surgery, and he found some spare anipal eyes in Polar's sewing box. 'Do you think she would be able to see better with these than those little faded circles of felt?' he asked. 

 

Polar was sure she would and, because no cubs would be playing with Bunny who might hurt themselves on the wires, they fitted Bunny's new eyes.

'Now she needs a new dress,' said Polar.  'Because she won't be playing outdoors and it won't need washing - unlike your clothes, little bears - we can use some more felt.'

They decided that a nice bright red would look very Christmassy, which it did, once they had added a bright tartan bow.

 

'That's marvellous!' said Old Bunny.  'Thank you so much, bears!  But what about my friend Nutley?  What can we do to help him with his floppy neck?'

While Endon had been helping Polar with Bunny's repairs, Hanley, Waverley and I had been listening to football in Grizzly's workshop, and this had given Hanley an idea.

 

'If Polar makes Nutley a Stoke scarf, he can wear that all the time,' he said.  'That'll hold his head up!'

 

Nutley thought that was a great idea.  He supports Southampton, like Polar, but luckily they also play in red and white.

Then we cut some of the left-over pieces of felt into squares and Polar sewed them together to make a patchwork quilt for Bunny and Nutley's bed, so they wouldn't have to squeeze into the Bear Basket when it was bedtime.

 

'And it is bedtime,' said Polar, pointing to her watch.  'Sleep well, little creatures!  There might be snow tomorrow.'

 

And there was!