Shine OnLiam and Ah-ah: Boy reunited with lost stuffed monkey, three years later
Three years ago, a Nebraska kindergartener lost his stuffed blue monkey on a family camping trip at Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park. This summer, he was reunited with the monkey he named Ah-ah. Liam received Ah-ah on his first birthday and it had been a permanent fixture in his life up until he lost the toy.
The tearful reunion was caught on camera by presumably the boy's father. Warning: Kleenex may be necessary.
"Ah-ah became a member of the family, going everywhere my son went," the boy's dad writes in the text accompanying the viral YouTube video.
When the monkey was lost, the little boy was devastated.
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As time passed, everyone gave up on finding Ah-ah again — except for Liam's mother, who quietly continued to search.
This summer, she was browsing on eBay, looking to buy a viola for her daughter, Emma, when she decided to enter "blue monkey" into the auction site's search engine.
The single result was from a seller in Florida: a stuffed monkey that looked remarkably similar to Ah-ah. She thought the monkey would be a good replacement.
When the stuffed monkey arrived in the mail, the mother immediately identified the toy as Liam's beloved Ah-ah, thanks to certain distinctive markings like singed fur on the top of its head and the raggedy cut tag.
Liam burst into tears of joy at the sight of his long-lost monkey.
The family still doesn't know how the stuffed animal ended up in Florida, but they're overjoyed that Ah-ah is now back in Omaha with its original owner.
