I say goodbye to Layla, the rabbit girl and Tommy, the gnome. I used them for a year in CATS sessions but I was never quite happy about them, being half-human and half-who-knows-what.

Layla will hopefully find a good home at the girl’s who named her. As for Tommy, I will put him somewhere on a bench (when it’s not raining) with a note saying ‘Please take me home’. I hope someone will.

The two characters I decided to use instead of them are Zut, the native androgynous wizard/witch and Bumba, the bear.

Even as I was making Zut, I knew I wanted to keep him/her and use as a character in CATS sessions.

With Bumba, I wasn’t sure. One of my goals in life is to make a PERFECT bear like my bear I have for twenty-one years now. Santa brought him to me and I love him ever since. I am not trying to make a bear who looks like him, I am trying to create a bear who is as perfect as him. So far, I haven’t succeeded. But I keep trying!

Out of all the bears I made, I like Bumba the best. I am not sure why. He is definitely not the nicest one, not the most elaborate one, not the most interesting one. On the contrary. He has a very simple shape and if you look at him you can clearly see he is not the sharpest tool in the box. Still, I love him.

I hope my clients will like Zut and Bumba, and that the two of them will facilitate the birth of many stories.