Please meet Priscilla, a Cherished Teddy bear from Enesco

Please meet Priscilla,  who was made for Enesco's Cherished Teddy line.   She is unjointed, and when she's in her preferred sitting position, she's about 9 inches tall.   She is very softly stuffed and is made of a short-pile tan plush.   She wears a pink ribbon on her head and has a little pink heart on her chest.  She would be a perfect companion to the young Teddy bear collector.

Priscilla learned early in life that some Teddy bears look down their nose at her.    Some of those fancy German bears that cost a bundle and have buttons in their ears, they are very proud their fur is made from the coat of an Angora goat or an Alpaca.   Then there's the antique Teddy bears with their excelsior stuffed bodies and time-worn felt paw pads.  They are well aware their long histories and provenances increase their value.  The Teddy bears carefully and lovingly crafted by artists are thrilled to have websites, magazines and Facebook pages where they are showcased and admired by people all over the world.   Even the collectible bears manufactured in the thousands are a bit conceited whenever they meet Priscilla.   They think she has very little value.   But she knows better.

Priscilla may not have the expensive pedigrees other bears have, but she's learned a lot in her life.   She first lived with a family where she was the best friend and confidante of a  little girl who dragged her around the house all day and whispered secrets into Priscilla's ears.   Priscilla gave all the cuddles she could and she felt she made a difference, but when the young lady entered her tweens, Priscilla was delegated to a shelf with the much more expensive Teddy bears in that very pink room and was occasionally dusted off by the housekeeper.  That's where Priscilla learned what the other Teddy bears  thought of her.   When the family eventually decided to move to a newer, bigger home in the countryside, Priscilla was part of the tag sale and had a sticker on her that simply said, "Free."   She was picked up several times, but no one seemed interested, but as luck would have it, at the very end of the day, a nice woman gathered her into her arms and promised she would take good care of her.

And she did.   Judy had a toy collection like no other Priscilla had ever seen before.   Her bear hug was composed of a dozen or so bears that Judy picked up at garage sales on the weekend that seemed destined to end up at the local charity shop.   But Judy loved bears, no matter what their background.   She was that kind of lady.

When Judy took the bears to a picnic lunch in the park, Priscilla couldn't help but notice how passersby smiled.   At the drive-through, Priscilla was sure the man handing Judy a coffee winked at her with a little grin.  Judy even took all the bears to choir practice one day, the bears sitting in the pew at the back of the church humming along with the music.   Priscilla thought the choir sounded best when Teddy bears were harmonizing.   When Judy's friend was not feeling well, Priscilla went with her for a visit and offered her a big bear hug.   The friend's mood lifted right away.

Priscilla makes sure when Judy comes home from work, all the bears are nice and neat and on their best behavior, which in ordinary circumstances would be a difficult job, but these bears are up to the task.   They all want Judy to come home to a warm loving home.

You see, Priscilla and the other bears have learned a good lesson:   That while it's nice to be important, it's even more important to be nice.