I no longer had to hog Tuna when my boyfriend and I watched TV on the couch, nor did we have to fight over who would get to have him when we were apart. Our first “family picture,” not including Tuna of course, was a selfie of the three of us under the neon-lit ferris wheel. The grand prize was a toy llama with dark fur and sparkly gray eyes. Having subpar aim, I only hit two out of the three balloons with the darts, but my boyfriend hit the target on all three of his. In June 2019, we stumbled upon a balloon game at the Wildwood Boardwalk. Living in a dorm where I wasn’t allowed to own a pet, my stuffed animal was my furry companion - a girl’s best friend. He could play the guitar like a prodigy, despite only having fins. We crafted a story in our head, giving an inanimate object a life of its own. When my boyfriend and I weren’t together, we would take turns keeping Tuna for the week. I cuddled him tightly every night in bed, and I positioned him like a doll and sent pictures of him in ridiculous poses to my boyfriend. When I asked what we should name the stuffed animal, my boyfriend didn’t hesitate to answer.įrom then on, Tuna and I, or Tuna Squared, became inseparable. I always loathed both nicknames until he started calling me Tuna, though. My boyfriend joined in when he asked for my Snapchat and I had to tell him the embarrassing username that began with “Tuna.” Ever since my best friend misplaced a vowel in “Tina” in seventh grade, she called me Tuna throughout high school, and I even made it my Snapchat handle. Tuna was not just our inside joke, however. I’ve always been one to develop a closer bond with sentimental items than with people, carrying my blanket “Blankie” around with me until I was twelve and collecting Webkinz throughout my childhood. When my boyfriend texted me “I got you something” two and a half years ago, in spite of the fact that we had just met two weeks prior, I didn’t have an inkling of an idea of what it could be.īut when he told me to close my eyes and hold out my hands, and I felt something soft and velvety touch my palms, I knew exactly what it was.

I forgot my webkinz pet name