Moosie found, catastrophe averted

Moosie is safe.

And Papa is relieved.

To meet Moosie, you have to travel back in time to last August. We were in Concord, New Hampshire, at the L.L. Bean outlet store there.

Once upon a time, we used to go up to the L.L. Bean headquarters in Freeport, Maine, when we were in New England. But over the years, that place was transformed from a quirky retail shop into a regional retail magnet, complete with its own set of shopping mall-style parking lots.

Once we learned there was an outlet store in Concord, only about 45 minutes from my wife’s family’s cabin, we quickly switched our allegiance. The Concord store was smaller, less stressful and a much shorter drive.

So it’s become a family tradition that when we are in that neck of the woods, we stop in to check out what bargains may be waiting for us in terms of fleece, sweaters and the occasional odd item that tends to pop up in outlet stores.

That’s what happened last summer, when we made the Bean pilgrimage with daughter Maggie and her 3-year-old Johanna.

But, as usual on such occasions, people shop at different speeds. In this case, both Connie and Maggie found items that might fit into their wardrobes, while Johanna and I were ready to move on.

The best Papa solution was for me to carry Johanna around, browsing and chatting and doing goofy grandpa stuff, while Mom and Nana shopped.

And that’s when we found Moosie.

He was a loose-limbed stuffed toy moose about 12 inches high, though I’m not sure whether that number includes the antlers or not.

L.L. Bean had displayed the Moosies prominently in the impulse-purchase aisle right before the check-out. But someone had apparently picked one up and had second thoughts. They’d left it atop a rack of women’s sweaters.

I’m still not sure who spotted it first. It might have been Johanna. It might have been me.

Either way, I knew it was going into our shopping cart.

I scooped up the toy, Johanna dubbed it officially as “Moosie” and we were off.

That might have been the end of the story, until a few weeks ago.

About the last weekend of April, son-in-law Josh took Johanna to the Boston Children’s Museum so Maggie could concentrate on a paper for a graduate level course she’s taking.

And somewhere along the line, Moosie went AWOL or whatever the equivalent designation is for a stuffed moose who has disappeared.

Johanna was, of course, distraught. That’s what happens when you are 3. At that point, childhood is pretty much binary: You are happy or you are distraught. There’s nothing in between.

That, of course, meant that Josh was stressed. There’s nothing quite like having a 3-year-old upset about her missing Moosie to get you going.

He knew that they didn’t have a Plan B Moosie substitute back at home. And because I suspect Moosie was an L.L. Bean clearance item, I’m not sure another one could be found anywhere.

So, consoling Johanna, he stopped at the Lost and Found window at the museum.

It was there, as he was filling out the paperwork, that a man walked up and said, “Did somebody lose a moose?”

Problem solved. Moosie back in the fold.

And the grandparents don’t have to start searching on the internet for a replacement.