If your little one has a comfort blanket or a special attachment to a favourite cuddly toy, you’ll know the heart-stopping fear that grips you from head to toe whenever said item gets misplaced.
Factor in that your child needs their security item to get to sleep at night, and you’ll rightly be tearing your hair out if you can’t seem to find it.
But when this happened to four-year-old Phoebe Steel from Saskatchewan in Canada, who lost her cuddly toy dog named Ra Ra, something pretty magical happened.
Today reports:
It happened during a layover at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada.
"Somehow [Ra Ra] got dropped and we didn't realize until the plane took off," Jennifer Steel, Phoebe's mom, told TODAY.com
Phoebe was devastated.
"[She] had a bit of a breakdown, unfortunately," said Steel. "Eventually she calmed down, and I explained that I would contact the airport to see if they could find him once we landed.”
Ra Ra had been given to Phoebe when she was newborn, and her mum described Phoebe and Ra Ra as “inseparable”.
So Jennifer did what any modern mother does in a parenting crisis. She took to social media to share her tale of woe and beg for help to find Ra Ra and bring him home.
She posted a picture of Phoebe and Ra Ra to the airport’s Facebook page and a short while later, an airport official confirmed that the toy had been found.
But then, lo and behold, a photo album called RaRa's journey through Toronto Pearson appeared on the airport’s Facebook page along with #RaRaVisitsYYZ on Twitter, followed by an adorable set of six photos charting Ra Ra’s adventures on his quest to return home to Phoebe.
The photos included Ra Ra waking up in a drawer at the airport and realising he was supposed to be on a plane with his family, as well as navigating his way through airport security and making friends with a fellow stuffed toy traveller.
Possibly the sweetest story ever, no? And how happy must little Phoebe have been to be reuinted with her beloved Ra Ra?
What lengths have you - or others - gone to in order to help you reunite your child with their favourite lost toy? We’d love to hear your stories over on our Facebook page.
Comments