Sisterbaby was giraffenapped.....

My daughter, Piper, is 3. She LOVES giraffes.....I mean LOVES them. Has since she was 10 months old and saw one at the zoo for the first time. Last year for Christmas, my sister bought her a stuffed giraffe. Piper named her Sisterbaby....for the longest time it was Sisserbaby, but now she can pronounce the T. Anyway, Sisterbaby is with Piper all of the time. She sleeps with her, takes her to school, church, the grocery store, Wal-Mart, the bathroom....everywhere. Sisterbaby is part of the family. A couple of weekends ago, Piper and her brother and sister went to spend the weekend with my mother in law. Of course, Sisterbaby went along. When my husband went to get them on Saturday night, he came home with 3 kids and no stuffed giraffe. It was pandamonium....we searched the vehicle from top to bottom...no giraffe. So apparently, Sisterbaby was left at Grangie's. No biggie....Daddy promised Piper that he'd go the next day to get her. Well, Sunday came and went and Daddy broke his promise. We went almost a week Sisterbaby-less. It was hell. Piper wouldn't go to bed at bedtime, she woke up screaming for Sisterbaby and tossed and turned all night. I was exhausted. On Thursday I finally decided to do what I should have done in the first place, and went to get Sisterbaby myself. We searched everywhere.....I even looked in my Mother in Law's dirty laundry....please don't ask. She was nowhere to be found. We even looked outside. I was beginning to panic and Piper was beginning to cry. I finally said that we would go to Hallmark and just get a new one to calm her down until we found the original. That worked until we got to the store and they didn't have one. I really was thinking that I would have to quit my job and make it my lifes work to find that giraffe. Finally after a long 4 hours of listening to Piper whine about Sisterbaby being gone forever and her sister, Grace, making it worse by saying Grangie had probably thrown her in the garbage, we got a call. It was my mother in law, and she was celebrating through the phone....SISTERBABY HAD BEEN FOUND!!!! Apparently on Saturday, the kids had been playing outside before going to their aunt's birthday party and Sisterbaby was watching from the porch. The neighbor's dog, Nike, had come to play with them and Grangie's dog, Holly. I guess when the kids had their backs turned, Nike absconded with Sisterbaby to his yard. They were in such a hurry to get to the party, they didn't notice Sisterbaby wasn't with them, so when Piper asked for her, they assured her she was at the house waiting for them. The neighbor found the giraffe, assumed it was one of Holly's toys that Nike had stolen, and took it into her house to keep safe until Grangie returned home. She forgot about it until Thursday night, and when she saw Holly outside, she remembered and brought it back to Grangie's yard and gave it to Holly. Holly took it and dropped it on the porch....she knew it wasn't hers. Nike came and stole it again, and burried it in his owner's flowerbed, where she was found a mere 4 hours after my search had ended. Grangie said she was in tact, but muddy so she washed her, and replaced her lost earring (yes, Sisterbaby got her ear pierced when Piper had her's done...but only one ear), and had her waiting for Piper. We went the next morning and got her. Piper was so excited, she squealed and hugged Sisterbaby for the longest time. Now Sisterbaby is safe at home where she belongs, and Piper won't let her leave the house except to go to school, and her teacher says she checks her backpack a million times a day to make sure she's still there. I'm so glad she's back, because I actually get to sleep all night without being woken from a dream of Tom Welling rubbing my feet, by the blood curling screams of "Sisterrrrrbabbbbby!" It's great to have her home....