“Dude, seriously?”

I stared at Panda in disbelief. Another outfit? But I didn’t remember hearing the sewing machine in the sewing room.

But then, I haven’t heard the sewing machine for awhile. You can barely tell our sewing room is even a sewing room anymore, with all the organizing and shredding Mom’s been doing lately.

I inspected Panda’s new shirt more closely. Something was different about this one but I couldn’t quite put my paw on it. “Hey, your whiskers are tickling me!” Panda protested as I sniffed his collar.

“How did she manage to make you a new shirt without using the sewing machine?” I asked, somewhat rhetorically. “I’m not sure we even still have a sewing machine!”

“Well,” Panda replied, looking at me with a steady gaze. “My Hawaiian shirt was getting pretty ragged, so she was trying to find my sweater. You know, the one I wore when we went to the Swiss Alps?”

“That was a cool sweater,” I said, thinking back. Panda laughed. “Actually,” he replied, “it was a warm sweater. But anyway, Mom thought it was in her sock drawer, but it wasn’t. And then she got an idea.”

Gradually it began to dawn on me…”So that’s a… sock?”

“Well actually it’s two,” Panda replied. “How do you like my new hat?”

“I like it,” I said. “Does it come off?”

“Hey! Don’t mess with the hat!” was Panda’s response. “I happen to have it on for a reason!”

“Remember Mom sewed this patch on me because my stuffing was coming out? Well now even the patch is getting raggedy. She says I have to keep my hat on at all times, or at least when we’re playing.”

“Well,” I said thoughtfully, “I guess that’s fair. I’ve noticed she pretty much makes you a hat for every new shirt now.”

“True,” Panda said, “but remember she got my lumberjack hat from a penguin at Target. It’s the one I wore on our trip to Yosemite.”

“Oh, that’s right!” I exclaimed. “I had forgotten about that one. And what about your hoodie? Didn’t you wear that when we went to Monterey? And didn’t she make you a baseball cap for our trip to Hawaii?””

“Well, yes,” Panda agreed. “But remember, we didn’t really go to Hawaii. That was a virtual adventure because of Social Distancing and Travel Restrictions.“

“Oh that’s right!” I answered. “But it was fun. And it seemed so real!” Panda shuddered. “Yeah, a little too real.” he said. “I’m just glad we had a professional pilot to navigate us away from that active volcano!”

“Yeah, that was a close one,” I said. “Well now that you have a new shirt and hat we should at least start planning our next trip, even if it does have to be a virtual one.”

We decided to plan our trip in our new den, at the bottom of the cat tree Aunt Kate gave us. “I don’t think you’ll fit in here, Buddy,” I said. “But that’s okay. So where should we go for our next adventure?”