Dream Pet with Petplan!

Say hello to the newest addition of Alfie's ever growing collection of soft toys and snakes...... this is Alex the Anaconda. I know, I know he doesn't really look like your conventional Anaconda but in Alfie's eyes this is the next best thing since Ginger his bedtime bear. Alex has settled in remarkably well and has made good friends with Barry the Burmese Python (the kid has a way with names I tell you) and he's a very cute toy to welcome into the Beautiful Things household. 

So how did Alex the Anaconda enter our lives I hear you ask......? Well, I've recently been working alongside Petplan to allow Alfie to design his dream pet, such an exciting task for a nearly 5 year old. 

First, a little bit about Petplan Pet Insurance. One of the market leaders in pet insurance Petplan pride themselves on recognising what pet owners require when it comes to insuring your beloved pets and offer reputable and unrivalled  insurance plans.  Having personally used Petplan in the past I can speak from experience when I say that the policies are very thorough and concise and the company has always been a pleasure to deal with. 

As part of Petplans latest campaign to encourage pet owners to insure their animals we were asked to design a dream pet, a wish pet if you like. I kind of had an idea what Alfie wanted to design......after all he's been going on and on about having a pet anaconda (eek) for quite some time now. For the record we're not getting a real life Anaconda so Alex will have to suffice!  Myself and my husband sat down with Alfie and asked him what he'd like him to look like. 

My husband drew the prototype but the colours and design were all on Alfie's instruction and he was really quite specific about how he would like his snake to look like!

When Alex arrived he was exactly as Alfie had imagined. A little smaller that a real Anaconda (but I'm ok with that) and quite plump, Alex is a soft and squishy  bright green snake with blue patterns with  very sparkly purple stripes (told you he was unique), he's got big eyes and a huge forked tongue. He's certainly a special pet snake! 

Ooops, chopped his head off, was trying to get pictures while Alfie willing!

I can't describe how excited he was to see him, the first thing he did was go and get Barry the Burmese Python to introduce them to each other and give them both a cuddle. He thinks Alex is absolutely brilliant and he has to make sure he's tucked in with him in bed every single night. He's most definitely a very proud Anaconda owner......

I love how a simple idea and soft toy can make a child so happy, Alfie takes such pride and pleasure in his soft toys and Alex the Anaconda is no exception. I love that all his teddies have individual names, when I'd asked Alfie what he wanted to name the Anaconda, Alex was the first name he suggested, we do have some interesting named toys that I have no idea where he came up with them...... for example, we have Ginger and Chloe the bedtime bears, Rory the Lion, Natty the Elephant, Gerry the Giraffe, Bruce the Shark, Luke the Lemur and Craig the Croc......to name but a few!

Along with Petplans great insurance covers did you know that the company work alongside re-homing charities and in 1994 created the charitable trust that helps which so far has raised more than 7 million towards a healthier and happier world for the animals out there. 

What do you guys think of Alfie's new pet? Cute right!

* Please note we were kindly sent the soft toy free of charge in exchange for an honest and unbiased blog post, special thanks to Petplan!