Animal Rescue - Stuffed Pets Need Stitches

My daughter is an animal lover and loves to watch Animal Cops and Animal Precinct and decided that she wanted an animal rescue party. 

She wanted to get to stitch up wounds in stuffed animals and do the medical things like on the TV shows.  So we bought stuffed dogs from Michael's and cut 2 of the seams about 1/2 inch one each dog to be the dog's wounds and then colored the edges of the wound red with a marker. 

Before the party, I hid the dogs around the yard and took pictures of them in their hiding places and then took another picture of the hiding spot from farther away.  Each child was given a set of pictures when they arrived showing their wounded dog and where he was hiding.  The kids had to search the yard to find their dogs and then bring them back to the house to be operated on. 

I set up a triage area for them to operate in.  I made IV bags out of freezer ziploc baggies taped to a child's hanger and taped clear plastic fish tank air pump tubing to the bottom of the bag to serve as the drip tube and taped a pin to the end of the tube.  The kids loved getting to use real needles (naturally the kids were old enough to handle the needles properly and were supervised at all times). 

I hung the IV bags on the dining room table light fixture. Once the IVs were in, the kids administered shots, used the stethoscope and began stitching the wounds closed with a needle and thread.  Once they were finished stitching, they covered the wound with a bandage and made a dog collar for their animal and got to keep the dog as a party favor. 

The kids had a great time getting to play with dangerous medical" equipment LOL. You can see some pcitures at www.toadhaven.com "