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THE WARRIOR BEAR
Made in Alaska by
Rosanna McInnes
1/1
E-Bay #4
A Unique One of a Kind Bear
The Warrior was designed and crafted in North Pole, Alaska in February and March of 2010. He is dedicated to the animals of our great and beautiful country that sometimes need our help.
WARRIOR
an Alaskan Teddy Bear Tale
Did you ever wonder what happens in Santa's workshop after Christmas? It is a time when the elves have been released for their Florida vacations, when Mrs. Claus tends to the reorganization of her kitchen, and when Santa refuses all efforts of visitors with deep blasting snore sounds from behind his bedroom door. It is also a time when the usual cacophony of North Pole life comes to a standstill so that an elf who needs to, can work on a serious project without interruption. This year was no exception, as it found Elf #363 alone in the workshop with a project of immense proportion; a project that had nothing at all to do with Christmas giving but which gives in a different way.
To understand the project, you must first understand the way things work in North Pole. It is a place of stark beauty where it is not uncommon for the temperature to plunge to 40 below in the winter time. It is also teeming with wild creatures, and all of them, not just the elves, have a purpose. The foxes deliver messages back and forth, the beavers provide a steady rhythm for the tinkering elves to keep pace with, and the wolves sing deep long notes of warning when intruders get too close. Though not very many humans live here, most live in harmony with the wildlife of North Pole, and most respect its wildlife, its beauty and its gifts.
Santa knows though, that some, only a few, don*t respect and understand well enough, the beauty and gift of the wild animals that help his kingdom to produce year after year. Those few, those are the ones who sometimes need a lesson, and that is what Santa was thinking about when he commissioned Elf #363 to create THE WARRIOR. In early January, before retirement to his bed, Santa penned the following letter:
Click on picture to read larger version
It was not without a little relief that #363 knotted the very last stitch on THE WARRIOR and clipped his strings. She wrapped him in a piece of birch bark to disguise him as a log and carried him, along with a bundle of wood out the back door of the workshop into the great field where the reindeer practice their landings and takeoffs.
Keeping her head down so as not to attract attention, #363 made her way along a small path bordering the field. After only a minute of balancing on the trail with her bundle, she made it to a small cabin, her cheeks lit like golden coins by the two glowing front windows. She reached for the knocker and gave it three hard quick raps. Within a moment Mrs. Claus was opening the door and beckoning her in.
"I've come with wood for Santa's sleeping room," said #363. "Go on in dear," said Mrs. Claus, "he's expecting you." Once inside, #363 found Santa, not lounging in his bed as was normal for this time of the year, but instead, seated fully upright in his chair before a dwindling fire.
Without a word, Elf #363 lowered her knees so that Santa could reach up and take the top birch log off. With the tenderness of a father holding his new child, Santa un-wrapped The Warrior and turned him every which way, bending his arms, stretching his legs, twisting his head, and checking for every last detail he had included in the plans. Several moments later, he lifted his head toward #363, and with a banana sized grin, chortled, "Three sixty three- you have done well," while setting the bear down in front of the glowing embers of the fire.
What happened next would stay in the memory of Elf #363 until the end of her days, for few elves ever get to ws Santa performing a level of magic that is greater than what he uses for his flying reindeer, his rooftop landings, or his chimney entrances. Santa reached below his rocker, and carefully plucked a small red bag from beneath it. His worn but spry fingers slowly inched a small opening in the bag until he could just reach the tips of his fingers inside the bag. Three sixty three held her breath as Santa's fingers emerged with a large pinch of glittering dust that he at once sprinkled all over The Warrior's head.
"Travel well Warrior," Santa told him as the dust fluttered down. Warrior instantly came to life, his ears began to twitch, his elbows began to bend, and he wiggled his hips in a big circle, as though he were spinning a miniature hula hoop around them. Warrior shook one last time, turned to look at #363, gave her a nod, and with a twinkle in his eye (not unlike the very one in Santa*s eye) he turned towards Santa and leaped up into the air to give him a high five. In the next moment he was at the window, and quicker than anything #363 had seen before, he had sprung the latch, hopped out, and was climbing up a lookout tree.
From his perch in the tree Warrior could see across the field and into the valley where the foxes lived. There, under an old log, near the foxes den, was an unmarked trap! Warrior bounded down the tree and before Mrs. Fox could scramble out to see what was happening, he had sprung the trap. Mrs. Fox was so grateful she gave Warrior a pair of ski's to help him with his work.
As the months went by, Warrior remained dedicated to his work. When careless hunters came into the forest to shoot hares, "for target practice" and not for subsistence, Warrior used his ski poles to make an elaborate maze of fake rabbit tracks that kept them going in circles for hours. And when a young fellow who was new to the area came out to hunt a wolf only because he thought it would be "cool", Warrior got particularly angry and cut a hole in his ammunition pouch so that it all fell out into the deep white snow, rendering it useless and impossible to find.
One particular Tuesday, as Warrior was doing his rounds near the Santa Claus House, he was met by a very anxious squirrel carrying a special message from Santa who was on vacation in Florida. Santa, being the friendly fellow he is, had met a concerned Ranger who was having trouble with Sea Turtle Egg Poachers. Santa wrote that it was just the type of problem Warrior was made for solving, and besides, wouldn't it be nice to see the Florida beaches? So with a firm sense of duty, Warrior marched himself into the Post Office, crawled into a box with his ski's, and mailed himself directly to the Sea Turtle Protection Team.
And so it came to be, that Warrior began to help animals around the world, and not just in Alaska. For in every corner of this world, there are wild and beautiful creatures, the kind who deserve to live in peace, and to keep sharing this earth with the humans who sometimes destroy their chances to do so. To repay the Ranger for her concern and love for wild things, Santa remembered her every year by placing her name among the top ten on his 'Good Boys and Girls' List.
Click here to read a nice blog about sea turtle rescues.
Warrior gets weighed on Tata's vegetable scale in preparation for his trip to Florida
Me and Warrior
The boys and Warrior on our porch
