fluffy has struck again, this time making off with some of my tupperware and all of our pony tail holders. "who is fluffy?", you ask (especially since previously three hard to find children have been blamed for nearly everything in our home). fluffy is a little portable hole that likes to randomly suck things up. it will occasionally spit things back out, but more often than not this little monster keeps anything it can.

i first heard of fluffy from a friend and fellow victim, bill. seems any time he was missing something that he just KNEW had been set right out in the open for him to grab later, he blamed fluffy. fluffy particularly liked the things in his closet, so it was deduced that fluffy lived there. i never actually saw fluffy, but did see it at work when another friend and i visited once. we had set something down, and went to play some pool and some ad&d. when we came back, the item was no where to be found. we searched everywhere obvious and not so obvious. nothing. it had vanished. bill's pronouncement, "fluffy must have gotten it."

a short time later, fluffy moved to another friend's house. as i rarely visited fluffy's new home, i never imagined it would decide to live at my house. apparently fluffy moved around for a few months amongst these other friends who were always visiting each other. we theorized that it would sneak into a car trunk or something to get to the new house. one person thought fluffy could teleport, probably because he did more walking than traveling by car.

of course, i knew most of these people, so it was bound to happen eventually. fluffy moved into my house. it must have happened when they came over to play ad&d at my place. what's worse, after months of constant moving, fluffy decided to STAY at my place. i don't know what it was about the place that made fluffy settle in, but settle in it did and with a vengeance. when i moved, more than usual came up missing. i guess fluffy wasn't to happy about me leaving it behind in whatever closet it had decided to call home.

however, moving seemed to have done the trick. no more mysterious disappearances for quite some time. things we couldn't find seemed more misplaced than completely vanished for a couple of years. it is so reassuring to know something is ONLY misplaced rather than eaten alive and never to be found again.

i should have known it was too good to last.

there was no warning. we only visit with one of the friends who had knowledge of fluffy in the past and he hasn't mentioned it lately. i haven't gone by the old house much less been in it any time recently. i haven't even thought about fluffy until today. yet somehow that little portable hole of devouring found me and has once again resettled in my home. i can't even imagine how it got here across 2 cities. perhaps the little monster DOES teleport. regardless of HOW it got here, it is indeed back, finding random items to make vanish. and none of the items that vanish are ones i never use...it's always the ones i need on a regular bases. occasionally fluffy shows a sense of humor and spits things back out...after i have already replaced them.

so far the only way to get rid of fluffy, to my knowledge, is to invite friends over on a regular and frequent bases and hope that fluffy likes them enough to go home with one of them. at the moment our current ad&d game is on hold, and my husband is not fond of company at any other time. in fact, it is hard enough to get him to be ok with gamers who are over to play. still, i am sure he'd be agreeable in a good cause. fluffy has snagged a few of his things of late as well.

anyone want to come over and visit?