Unexpected Toothy Guest

Every morning I wake up much earlier than my family. I splash some water on my face and take two hours to myself to start my morning before I have to get dressed and eat breakfast and do all the important work of the day.

This morning I stumbled into my bathroom at 7:00 (an hour later than usual) and reached out to turn on the water in my sink. Imagine my surprise when several needle-sharp teeth latched onto my little finger!

I quickly flipped on the light to better see the dark shape on my counter. I looked down and saw...

A tiny crocodile! I was quite astonished to find him there. Could he be lost? There are no rivers anywhere nearby, and in the middle of a drought there are no suitable lakes, even for such a little guy. I wondered what he was doing there, and asked him if he would let go of me now that he could see me.

Once he had released my finger he apologized quite nicely for biting me. He introduced himself as Jacques, and assured me he was not lost (I was very anxious to return him to whatever home he had left). Apparently he was tired of having to be gentle with his little siblings, and had swum off to find someone who would not be quite as delicate.

I told him I have a younger brother just the right age for a crocodile buddy to play with. He seemed quite excited by this, so I told him he was welcome to stay as long as he liked, provided that he would please stay out of my bathroom and not bite me. He agreed, and assured me that he would not bite anyone while he's here, unless the potential victim is being threatening.

This arrangement was satisfactory, and he allowed me to transport him to my brother's desk, where he is now eagerly waiting for my brother to wake up. I'm confident our little crocodile guest will be welcome.

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What do you think?

I finished him last night, and I'm quite pleased. The pattern is from a Lion Brand booklet called "easy crochet critters" (yes, it's not capitalized), and although they claim to be easy patterns...you really have to know a thing or two about amigurumi in order to make them.

I pretty much eyeballed the placement of the safety eyes (pun intended, sorry), and the legs I had to guess, pin in place, look at the example, adjust, and repeat.

Speaking of the legs, I made a few modifications to the pattern. First, I added an extra row to the legs because otherwise they looked a little like proto-limb growths sticking out of his body. Second, I adjusted their position so he was standing on them, not laying on his belly with his legs sticking straight out. Third, I made two rows of spines instead of one, and made them with stitches a size bigger so they looked less squashed and more spiny.

I'm pretty pleased with him.

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Got any cute amigurumi stories? Feel free to share!