Help! Hamster shredded precious blanket

[Mij]

Oh god, DD2 11 (severe anxiety) accidentally left absolute favourite blanket too close to hammie cage, and hammie somehow got hold of a fold and has irreparably shredded the middle of it. It was pretty much pristine (washes incredibly well) and I'm currently hiding it in the hope I can track one down as I used to see other people with them.
I'm stalking eBay obvs but posting on the off chance anyone is thinking of moving theirs on 😔

Try typing mamas and papas blanket in to marketplace and set the radius for as far as you can

I’m sure you’ve considered this OP, but could you get the original blanket attached to an underlying blanket in appropriate colour / fabric (a nice soft fleece perhaps)? That way the precious memories / smell / feel of it will be retained and it will still be lovely for snuggling under. It is possible that after the initial upset she will come to love the blanket in its new guise, and will be glad it is preserved. What now might seem deeply upsetting for her might in due course be looked upon with affection as a story in the life of her blanket. Something to consider and I appreciate she has anxiety and additional stresses which might heighten her distress initially, but in the long run an important lesson perhaps that things can alter in their perfection but not in how much they mean to us. I’m channeling the Velveteen Rabbit here...

@Puddlelane123 I've thought of lots of options along those lines yes. Obviously she's had a zillion disappointments and upsets in her life - a substantial number in the last few months as a Y6 - but it's her first reaction that needs to be managed as she hurts herself when distressed, and has such strong physical symptoms they've landed her stays in hospital before. So one thing we know can help avoid those sharp spikes is to lay out a manageable number of possible options. Which is why I was looking for another one so we would know if that was (or wasn't) one of the options. It maybe that we can patch the original with another one. My darning skills aren't up to dealing with the whole damage, the hammie has done quite the number on it.

@Puddlelane123 hit reply too soon, I'm doing so well...

So what I was trying to say was yes, I agree, that will probably happen and we're not trying to shield from all and any upset, it's not realistic and it's not good for her, she needs to find ways to manage her feelings (or rather her reactions to her feelings). But everything is so shit at the moment she can't even get as far as trying any of her usual strategies to combat rising panic or shutdown.

So yeah, just trying to assemble all the ideas and possibilities of ways to deal with it, so we can put the best 2 or 3 to her at the time we tell her about it.

@Mij you're welcome and good luck!! Hope you find one

So pleased that one was found! I didn't think you were rude. Just understandably stressed.

Posters saying they could have helped a child but were refusing to because of the perceived tone of your post need to have a good long think about their reaction

I totally get this op

With my dc I would check out likely range of options before breaking it to them. Completely understand why you would do this and how stressful this must have been

I have had a good long think. Hope op has too.

I think op is probably quite busy trying to protect her very vulnerable dc

Did you get a reply from fb marketplace? I found it too, sent a message and got one back to say it’s still available.