Do you still have some ratty, but sentimental, stuffed animal or blanket from your childhood?

Lots of had a whole menagerie, but still one favorite – it probably had a name and maybe someone special even gave it to us. And plenty of us would be happy to see that toy again if given the chance.

Vittoria Gallager thought she got that chance late last year when she was reunited with her stuffed dog, Crackers.

You see, Crackers had been lost when she moved to college but Gallagher didn’t really care at the time. Then, one day when she was visiting her sister in roughly the same area of town, she found a filthy plush dog on the side of the road. 18 years later, what were the chances of finding a 30-year-old stuffed dog exactly like hers in the same area where it was lost? Almost impossible, right?

Well, yes. Crackers wasn’t exactly everything he was cracked up to be.

Gallagher did what many of us would do – she carefully picked up the stuffed dog and brought him home. She just couldn’t bear to leave her childhood treasure lying there. She gave him a good wash (again, and again) and displayed him proudly. Then came the surprise.

She chronicled the whole drama on Twitter so we could all get a good laugh.

Her Twitter thread began with the day her grandmother gave her the toy, 30 years ago. And over 13,000 people have now engaged with the thread!

Then comes Crackers’ dramatic loss/escape:

Crackers looked a little worse for the wear after a presumed 18 years of living on the streets.

At this point, she assumed this was all some pre-Christmas miracle, so she texted her sister to tell her about the amazing find.

It all seemed predestined as well since she had just gotten back in touch with her grandmother’s side of the family!

Her sister Ally agreed, as evidenced by the fact that during their conversation, she even went so far as to use an exclamation point – totally off-character, apparently.

So now we’re back to a grimy stuffed animal.

And while it might seem silly, it’s not hard to imagine picturing yourself this excited to find a sentimental object – even one that’s kind of gross now.

However, we’re not so sure about throwing him in the washing machine with other items. But we’re not going to judge other people’s approach to laundry – to each their own!

(On a side note, you can and SHOULD wash stuffed animals with some frequency because even in the best of situations they contain dust mites which can cause allergies, especially for little ones!)

As we see the cleaned-up Crackers, looking dapper as ever, we know the other shoe is about to drop. Twitter just isn’t sentimental enough to make a story so pure go viral without some kind of twist.

Alas, the streetside reunion was not meant to be.

While a now-clean stuffed dog sat proudly in Gallagher’s kitchen, a few weeks later she got a text from her sister who was visiting their parents’ home.

Ally had made a shocking discovery.

Gallagher could not stop laughing knowing she picked up someone else’s toy off the street “and had it sat propped up in my KITCHEN, speaking to it like it’s my Dead Grandma.”

She felt silly but also had a great sense of humor about it all. She even displayed the toys side-by-side.

And, to be fair, at least Faux Crackers brought back some fond memories of her grandmother!

It appears no one has claimed the imposter yet despite Gallagher’s search for his owner.

And after taking suggestions for the new dog’s name, she decided on Wensleydale, or “Dale” for short “because it sounds like a real name an evil twin would have.”

You can tell them apart because Wensleydale now wears glasses – and is presumably evil.

We have to admit that while the whole thing is kind of ridiculous, this story made us smile and the responses it elicited (especially from other Twitter users sharing their childhood stuffed pets) brought back great memories.

It’s worth checking out the whole thread here.

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Source: Vittoria Gallagher via Twitter

(h/t Bored Panda)