Opal and stuffed animals

Opal is extremely discriminatory when it comes to stuffed animals. Note that I did not say discriminating; cheap, expensive, clean, dirty, not a problem. No, she's all about species. She is not all about uniqueness. She wants:

1. Dogs. Especially dogs with mouths that open, or really big dogs.
2. More dogs. Especially small ones, or ones you can put other things in, or mother dog/puppy combinations.
3. Cats. Preferably domestic cats, but large cats are OK, particularly lions.
4. Horses.
5. Did I mention dogs yet?

If she received nothing for her birthday but 20 identical stuffed dogs from the supermarket, her thrill would grow exponentially with each one she opened. A family of dogs! If she got 20 beautiful, fuzzy, unique stuffed animals, she would like that. It would be fine with her. She would pat them, and cuddle them, and then she would put them somewhere and return to her dogs.

So if you are planning on buying a stuffed animal for Opal, you can maximize the pleasure value of your spending dollar by focusing on dogs. Or cats, cats are good too. If the idea of giving more stuffed dogs to a child who already owns dozens seems redundant and pointless to you, consider the possibility that it would be even sillier to get her a stuffed animal she is not as totally absurdly in love with. You could get lucky with some other species, but the odds are against you. (The odds are best if you totally fell in love with the stuffed animal; she has several animals that are not of her preferred species but which she finds as endearing as their purchasers did.)