Poko ducked down into bed, trying to escape the morning sun's rays. Eventually, they creeped so thoroughly between the blinds, that he had no choice but to yawn and greet the day.

He scratched his plush ears and opened wide, glass, pink eyes. As he rolled out of bed, he glanced into the mirror and noticed his stuffing was disproportionally distributed around his belly. He pushed on the sides of his belly, forcing the stuffing to even itself out.

These days, due to his plush appearance and childish tendencies, Poko was more commonly known as Hugga Bear.

In the past, he had been a normal bear, who enjoyed playing in the outdoors. One fine Tuesday, he recalled, the sun had glinted sharply off some glass windows in a town situated just below his forest. Excited by the bright lights, he had scooted down the hill until he reached their source. A new shop had opened up in town, and in the windows, the owner had displayed the most wonderful teddy bear plushies!

Taken in by their shiny buttons, ever smiling faces, and fine stitching, Poko had opened the door to the toy store. He turned the corner immediately, and hugged the closest plushies. The soft yellow fleece felt wonderful against his body, and Poko hadn't noticed how bits and pieces of it had been left behind in his fur.

He made his way through the store, picking up a Valentines Day teddy bear here and a pink kissed bear plushie there. Each time he hugged the teddy bear close to his body, and when he put the well-hugged plushie back on the shelf, it would leave a parting gift of stuffing, thread, or fleece.

Poko wasn't sure how long he spent in the store, but the store owner eventually came out of the back of the shop and scared the bear away.

He remembered running back up to the hill, and after the exertion of the run and the pleasure of the discovery of plushies, he had fallen fast asleep under the shade of a large oak tree, where the sun peeked through just enough to warm his fur.

When he woke back up, maybe an hour later, he had leaned forward to scratch the bottom of his right foot, suspecting that an insect had tickled him during his sleep.

However, as he had stretched his paw forward, his elbow had snagged on a branch and a smart ripping sound rang through the forest. Poko blinked in surprise. Fur doesn't rip. He turned this way and that to try to see it, but he couldn't get a good view.

Or was it fur? Now that he thought about it, his fur looked different from normal, but his nerves felt dulled, and he couldn't quite put his paw on what was off.

But if something was ripped, perhaps the toy store owner could fix it! He lumbered down the hill, back to the store located in town.

It was late afternoon now, about 5 p.m. he figured, and kids were dragging their parents to the new store. "Look, Mom!" a small blond-haired girl said. “It’s a giant hugga bear!" She had run forward and thrust her face into his soft belly. “Heehee,” she giggled. “Your fleece is ticklish. Can we keep him, Mom? Can we? Can we?”

Poko was baffled. But he took a closer look at his limbs, and by golly, they did seem to be made of fleece instead of fur after all! He stepped away from the girl, who was currently on reason number seven as to why she should get to keep the hugga bear, and peered into the reflective windows. His eyes seemed to be made of glass, and on his ears, he could make out just the thinnest line of dark brown stitching.

The store owner, a hunched old man, knocked on the other side of the glass, startling Poko. He welcomed the fuzzy teddy bear back into the store, and had fixed the rip in his elbow for him, thus completing the perfect transformation of Poko to Hugga Bear.