One is in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, one is in a park in Antwerp, Belgium, and one is in the park in Dijon. It turns out, there are many identical bears in the world that he sculpted, but as far as I can tell, only three that are life size. So when researching about things to do in Dijon, France, which is very near our house in Semur, I read that the sculptor Pompon had a large polar bear there in a park. There was much rejoicing at the uniting of momma and baby bear, and we’ll always be sure they are packed together! So Bruce climbed through the attic, and the back room, and finally, thankfully, he found her in a box of things we were not going to set out that year. I was frantic at the loss of the momma bear. I didn’t know it until the next year when we were putting things out and we couldn’t find the mother, and so the little baby bear was crying. One year, Bruce, my master packer, had packed them separately when we were taking down Christmas. One large one sits sparkling amidst the presents under my tree, a very knowing bear! Another set, a mother and her baby, walk along one of my side tables during the holiday season. I have many that we set out at Christmas time. I still have my adorable little pink bear, and I’ll never forget them doing that for me. They had gone back and got her, the very same one. I do have my compulsions! And then, a few days later, Ben and Rose Anne came by with that pink snuffie for me. What can I say, I’m girly! I couldn’t afford it though, and after I bought her, and she came home with me, I sadly returned her because I was just flat out broke, probably from buying a 12 piece place setting of Noritake Conservatory china. The story of my pink snuffie is that I decided I desperately had to have one, and I wanted a pink bear. She’ll have to remind me who won out, but I think it was Number Two. Besides Lorna Doone cookies, the most important decision … which Snuffie got to go because they ALL wanted to go. I was with her for the packing decisions on what should go into her luggage, which had to make it all the way into a jungle. She reminded me recently that she once badly sprained her ankle out there, and Dr. By comparison, Rose Anne joined her husband in a jungle wilderness, where things go bump in the night, and where they were sleeping in a tent, and eating raw berries from trees, and there were NO mens or ladies facilities. I’m joining my husband on sabbatical and we are living quite civilized. research in Madagascar to study lemurs, Rose Anne joined him about halfway through his journey. Ben & Rose Anne Freed and the Snuffle Bears, seeing Ben off to Madagascar Ben could manipulate the face and body of a Snuffie to just make you weep with joy, turning their little heads sideways, and waving their little paws at you. And they each had their very own personalities and facial features. My last recollection was they had 7 or 8 of them. Not classical bear names, but numbered names.
She and her husband Ben had a collection of Snuffies, and they all had names. Of course they’re pretty and all, but it wasn’t until my beloved friend Rose Anne gave me a pink “Snuffie” bear that I began to think polar bears were really wonderful.
My fascination with polar bears didn’t begin until my late 20’s. I have been on a quest on this sabbatical to have a photo taken of myself with three polar bears.