The case of the missing blankey

My children have all had blankeys. They love their blankeys and they have all had just one that was good enough. We could not substitute a decoy, oh no they knew better. They would not be fooled by that trick. So maintaining a location on the blankey has always been a high priority for me.
About 6 months ago, I sat in my kitchen with a CPS caseworker and watched my adorable 3 year old stand on the picnic table outside of my open kitchen window and sing "I like big butts" while dancing with his blankey. You know, one of those moments of pride!! After my subtle suggestions of a new song, he finally lost interest in his "show" and proceeded to play outside for a little while longer. Flash forward to later on that evening, it is bed time and the blankey is nowhere to be found. I knew that I hadn't left the house since I had last seen blankey, due to the memorable moment that had occurred. So I began to search. We looked all over the house, in every conceivable and inconceivable location. I took a flashlight and searched all over the backyard. I walked the perimeter of our privacy fence to see if it had by chance flown the coup. I even knocked on my neighbors door and asked them to check their yard in case it had gone south for the night. NO BLANKEY!!
I was baffled. After a lot of tears, he finally passed out with out a blankey. I woke up the next morning on a mission to find the missing family member. I even went as far as to offer large sums of money to the one who found the blankey. Meanwhile, my mom had a blanket at her house that he would occasionally use in addition to blankey, so I hightailed it to moms to pick up that one. Begrudgingly he accepted the substitute, but continued to pray for the return of his best friend for weeks. Eventually we resigned. Where ever it was, it would remain. Maybe it ended up in the garbage and we missed it, maybe it fell in the neighbors yard and their dog at it and they were too embarrassed to fess up. So blankey was gone. He slowly adjusted to the new blankey and over time talked less and less about the "other blankey" Life goes on. Tough lesson for a 3 year old, but one of natural consequences since I have always told them not to take them outside.
Today, 6 months later, I look outside where my boys were playing and I hear Sam screaming. He is standing in the yard holding BLANKEY!!!! I stand in awe in the kitchen for a moment. thinking I am seeing a ghost. Sam comes running in the house and sure enough it is the real thing. Of course, I immediately ask, "where the heck did you find that!!???!@!!!" He takes me outside to show me and I can't help but crack up. On the side of our house is our hose reel. It is a plastic thing attached to the house and in the front of it is a small door for holding attachments. There, protected from the elements of a NWI winter, is precious blankey. Looking exactly the same as the day we lost him. Sam is beside himself and I can't believe I never checked there. Actually I didn't even know there was a "there" to check. So mystery solved, blankey in washer, Samuel ecstatic, and mom still scratching her head wondering how in the world that even happened!!!