Unexpected Sentimental Attachment

I used to work with a guy who came into the office one day, completely freaked out about how he lost his wedding ring. Apparently it had always been loose, and he hadn't bothered to get it adjusted. I remember laughing a little, for it was a replaceable piece of jewelery, and that if his wife trusted that he didn't have it off for the purpose of infidelity, there really was no need for all the fuss. Just buy a new ring, I thought to myself. I'm not a sentimental person, and I don't attach much emotion to material things, if you haven't already figured that out. Don't get me wrong though - I love stuff as much as the next person, but I'm not sentimental about it. At least I didn't think I was until about a month ago. My mom had slept over because of a snow storm, and offered to take care of Pumpkin in the morning, allowing us to sleep in. I couldn't see anything wrong with this plan, with the exception of one thing - we have to keep our bedroom door open at night to allow the dogs to come and go, and to allow my mom to let them out on that particular morning. With the door to our room open, Pumpkin ran in while we were sleeping. My mom felt that she could not follow her out of respect for our privacy, but Pumpkin, on the other hand, cared very little about such things. She ran straight into our bathroom, played around with whatever she found, then left with my ring holder. The ring holder is a small figurine, shaped like an elephant with it's trunk in the air, upon which I usually hang my rings for the night. Fortunately, my wedding ring and my "official" engagement ring were at the jewelers being modified. The one ring that was actually on the holder was the ring that hubby gave me when he proposed. This ring is not, however, the "official" engagement ring. When he asked me to marry him, he proposed with what he considered to be a "token" ring that he chose, and then sent me off to pick the ring of my choosing. He doesn't have a lot of confidence in himself when it comes to buying gifts, so I can see why he went this route, which does have it's merits I must say. So anyhow, we aren't talking about a ring with a lot of monetary value. It does have a diamond on it, but you kind of have to squint to see it. Anyhow, when I woke up in the morning after Pumpkin had ransacked my bathroom, my mom handed me the ring holder, which she had taken away from Pumpkin for fear that she'd poke her eye out. I didn't think of it at the time, but later in the day as I was putting the holder back on my counter top, I realized that the ring was gone. Did I ever feel terrible. At that moment, I realized just how important that ring was to me, and how I had wanted to keep it until the day when I would hand it down to my daughter, ensuring that she knew the history behind it. I also felt terrible for my husband. Although he mocked the small diamond on that ring periodically, it WAS the ring that he proposed with, and it meant something to him too. We searched the house high and low, but it did not turn up. I even went through the debris in the central vacuum canister later in that week, but there was nothing. For the past month or so, I've been thinking about how badly I wanted the ring back, and decided that I'd buy a replica if I had to, although I know that replica just somehow wont be the same. I now understand why my colleague was so distraught when he lost his ring, unless his distress was from fear of his wife killing him, but let's assume that it was not.

This morning, I was drying my hair while Pumpkin rummaged through one of my cabinets, when I realized that there were some pretty dangerous things in that particular cabinet. I stopped what I was doing to take things out of her hands such as bottles of prescription drugs, rubbing alcohol, and other such goodies. Each time I took something out of her hands, she grabbed another item. This went on until I noticed that she had uncovered something shiny. My ring! My ring! Yes, I do need to put a lock on that cabinet, but for today, my ring! My ring!