The strange but true story of the sausage giraffe

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the amazing unicorn toy that was created from Lia’s drawing. Of course, Libby wanted some of the action too, so she designed her own dream pet. Libby is a loud, gregarious character with a vivid imagination and a wicked sense of humour. Her dream pet was never going to be something as normal and reasonable as a unicorn. Instead, she designed something to reflect her character and personality.

Introducing the sausage giraffe

After a few attempts at drawing her dream pet, Libby eventually came up with the sausage giraffe. She decided that if you crossed a giraffe with a sausage dog, it would make a good pet. Gentle, funny and tall. And then she drew something on a crumpled bit of paper that resembled neither a sausage dog nor a giraffe.But it did capture her personality perfectly.

I have to say, I wasn’t convinced Petplan would be able to create Libby’s dream pet. After all, I’m not sure even Petplan’s pet insurance has ever been asked to cover a sausage giraffe before. But nonetheless, I sent it off and we sat back and waited to see what arrived.

The cuddly sausage giraffe

Since the day she drew it, Libby had been waiting for her sausage giraffe to arrive. The day it came, her face lit up. Before she even saw it she declared that she’d keep it forever, even when she was a grown up. She dived into the bag to see what they had come up with.

And thankfully, she loved it. I have to say, I was incredibly impressed that they managed to create something that so closely resembled Libby’s drawing. The bright colours, the shape and the face of the toy are all perfect.

Since receiving her sausage giraffe, Libby has been sleeping with it every night. She’s been desperate to show her friends, delighted that she would be the only person ever to have a toy just like this. Both of my children are real animal lovers and I’m so glad that we brought them up with pets. We’ll never be without a dog and I hope that in the future we’ll get a cat as well. No plans for a real sausage giraffe just yet though.