Some two dozen little ones fidgeted Saturday morning, eager for the story time session at the Green Tree Public Library to start so they could make some new friends.

Once the session started, they, indeed, did make new friends. In the program, the youngsters made stuffed toy moose by putting lots of fluffy cotton fill into prepared fuzzy toy animal bodies, then zipping them closed. OK, some of the kids got a little help with the zippers from their parents.

V.W.H. Campbell, Post-Gazette
Cathy "Moose" Smith and Elaine Palmer enjoy a laugh as Ms. Palmer adds stuffing to the moose hat of daughter Abby Palmer, 12. Amber Palmer, 10, front left, also enjoys the stunt.
Click photo for larger image.

The youngsters had their own take on the library project, one meant to alleviate the cabin fever of a long January. Marian Madden, 7; Ellen Madden, 6; and Rianne Lindsay, 8, chanted, "It's coming alive," and looked disappointed when the stuffed toys didn't.

A boy at a nearby table wished out loud that his moose was a werewolf.

Assistant librarian Adaena Hornstromcoordinated the Make a Moose session and had the youngsters gather in a circle as she read "If You Give a Moose a Muffin" by Laura Joffe Numeroff.

Showing that this was a well-read group, many of the youngsters said they had heard the story before.

Deyotta Healy, of Canonsburg, led the moose-making session. She is a local representative of a national company, American Stuff a Bear, and facilitates sessions at parties and workshops by having people create all kinds of stuffed characters.

Even though library staff chose moose for the Saturday class, Ms. Healy said snowmen were her favorite to make.

"They look cold but are so soft," she said.

A collector of all things related to moose, Cathy Smith, of South Fayette, said she attended as many such craft sessions as she could find and, Saturday, persuaded her friend, Elaine Palmer, and her two daughters, Abby and Amber, to come along. The family is from Green Tree.

Ms. Smith brought Bullwinkle hats for the Palmer girls to wear and told the assembly about some of the moose-related items she has in her collection.

She has clothes with moose emblazoned on them, dishes, a neon sign that blinks "Moose-head" and even several bobbleheads fashioned like moose.

Ms. Smith told of a recent real moose sighting when she visited the Grand Canyon and spotted one in the wild. "They're beautiful animals," she said.

Because she is a collector who plans her vacations around moose-related events, she once volunteered to be grand marshall of a parade in Moosehead, Maine, and got to wear a moose costume.

"It's hard to find someone to be the moose in that parade," she said.

Afterward, she and a friend visited restaurants and were treated as celebrities.

"I couldn't take the head off ... so we got free beer and food," Ms. Smith said.

Those interested in stuffing parties should contact Ms. Healy at 724-749-5425 or e-mail stuffin_and_fluffin@verizon.net.

First Published: January 25, 2007, 5:00 a.m.