I forgot to mention our collection of strange and unusual stuffed animals. We have the cows, and we have several other cute bears and stuff, but we also have several stuffed animals that are unusual... not the normal type of animal that you would expect to see as a stuffed animal.

Some of the more unusual ones are -- giraffe, crab, hippo, owl, mouse, rat, lobster, ferret, elephant, beaver, flamingo, koala, seagull, kangaroo, mama loon and papa loon with a baby loon, moose, walrus, squirrel, and a raccoon.

The shelves with the stuffed animals looks like a very strange zoo But I love things that are different and unusual, and many of our different and unusual stuffed animals are ones that we bought for special occasions or when we were on vacation or for holidays and stuff....

With the stuffed cow collection, it's hard to remember when and why and where we got each cow - but the unusual and different stuffed animals are so easy to remember where, when and why we bought them... and many of them are ones we got in hospital gift shops.

I remember buying the stuffed rat like it was yesterday because the woman working in the gift show thought I was nuts for buying my husband a stuffed rat when he was recovering from surgery... but it made him laugh and smile and that was the reason why I wanted something strange like a stuffed rat - to make him laugh and smile

One of the reasons that I have always loved stuffed animals so much is that they make me smile without even having to look at them or touch them -- just talking about them makes me smile and makes me happy.