What Was Lost Has Been Found!

In which I return to the Barrens to retrieve the missing HAT!

To say that I was deeply chagrined to have lost my pet Tiger's favorite hat would be an understatement. I often do strange little photo shoots in weird places. But I am not accustomed to losing things!

So on Sunday morning, we got up and it wasn't raining yet. So I tucked Tiny Tiger and the Moose into my daysack, hopped on my bike, and back we went to the Barrens, in search of the lost hat. 

At the same time, we wondered: what if the animals of the forest found it and took turns wearing the hat? What then? Might I have to wrestle it from a squirrel, or a crow?

I checked under the evergreens where I park my bike. No hat. And then, as I started to walk back the trail, I noticed a man and a beagle, strolling by my pond heading toward me. I backed off to give them the trail, as it's narrow in that spot.

I told the man that I was back in the Barrens in search of a hat I'd lost the day before. I told him I thought it might be by the first pond. "I was just by that pond," the man said; "I did not see any hat." "Well," I replied, "it's very . . . very . . . TINY." He gave me an odd look, walked away. I get that, a lot.

And then I walked up to my pond, and there in the leaves by the tree where we'd done our photo shoot the day before was a tiny red thing. My heart leapt. Could it be? YES, IT WAS TINY TIGER'S MISSING HAT!!!

So we grabbed that hat, and we did another photo shoot, with the two fast friends reunited with the missing chapeau. (While the scarf and hat actually belong to T. Tiger, he often loans one or more of his accessories to his pal the Moose, aka Mossy Paws.)

Also of note: the friends are hanging out in the little tote I was so pleased to procure from a neighbor a month or more ago. It says Maine, and has a moose on it! Isn't that awesome?

I also took the opportunity to wear the little hat as a Dunce Hat, which I richly deserved. So I put it on myself and pranced around my little pond like a happy little loon. I hope all of the creatures of the forest were quite impressed!

Now, there's only one song that I could think of to go along with this posting, and I think you will recognize it instantly. If the hat could sing, it might say, "I once was lost but now am found." And so our soundtrack song for this story is Amazing Grace. Here is a version I heard on the radio and instantly fell in love with: Chris Tomlin, Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone).