Ever since Larissa and I named our son “Calvin”, we’ve been getting comments about how he needed to have a stuffed tiger to serve as his “Hobbes”, in reference to the classic comic strip (and one of my favourites), Calvin and Hobbes.

Now, to be clear, we didn’t name our son after the character in the comic strip. (We didn’t name him after John Calvin, either.) We just liked the name. And even though we knew Calvin and Hobbes would come to mind when people heard Calvin’s name, it never occurred to me to find Calvin a tiger friend. If it had, I would’ve done it myself and given it to him on the day he was born!

But once we revealed his name, we were flooded with promises to find him a Hobbes. If everyone who had ever said they were going to give him one had followed through, we’d easily have a dozen little tigers stuffed into his crib right now.

Unfortunately, Calvin and Hobbes never really went the merchandising route. It’s literally impossible to find an official Hobbes stuffie. And while we did receive one stuffed tiger from Larissa’s aunt (and it is very cute!), we figured Calvin would probably never have a real Hobbes.

What I didn’t know was that my sister Michelle was stepping up to the plate in a big way.

Michelle found a fan-created pattern, used it to put together her own Hobbes, and presented it to Calvin last week. Here’s a picture of him with it. (He hasn’t really figured out what toys are for yet, but he’ll get there!)

I think you’ll agree that Michelle did a fantastic job. Hobbes looks great, and really authentic, and is put together pretty solidly. Hopefully he’ll last for a long time! Calvin seems to enjoy staring at him sometimes; the black and orange stripes probably capture his attention.

Thank you so much, Michelle. Calvin will thank you himself, I’m sure, in time.

Here’s a photo gallery of some of the process involved in putting Hobbes together.