Kaz, I have to admit I was given a Muffin the mule string puppet for my 5th birthday......
I promptly tied it to my dad's bicycle wheels and he rode off in the morning without noticing it. It tangled round the chain, he fell off and Muffin had to be surgically removed from the spokes with scissors!
I got a glove puppet of Sooty for my 6th birthday, cut all his hair off and made him into Sooty the Bald.......
Not to mention the brm brm amblance with the real sirens which my dad was forced to remove after about 24 hrs.
It's a wonder I turned into such a well balanced woman...........