Who is Baxterbear you ask?

Well let me tell you a very interesting story…

Baxterbear was born on a leap year! On February 29th, 1928 he entered the world and has been asked his age by those who adore him ever since.

Baxterbear just smiles. He knows he is ageless. Instead, he reminisces about where it all started and how it shaped him into the positive bear he is now.

Life was beautiful in his early years frolicking amongst the wildlife of a tea plantation in Ceylon, (the country currently known as Sri Lanka). The elephants who wandered, and the breeze that tickled his ears until he giggled.

He knew nothing of war, nothing of conflict—it was not a subject Baxterbear could understand, not with a mind so full of peace and love. So when the young boy he called his friend grew up into a pilot and took Baxterbear to war in his backpack, the Baxterbear realised how important positive thinking really was.

Finding himself in the midst of WWll, Baxterbear wondered why the world could not be as peaceful as he felt on the tea plantation he once called his home. He was chosen to be the mascot for his human friend just 20 years old Pilot Baxter, who flew with the Royal Air Force.  Baxterbear was proud to be a mascot, the danger of war still remained. Their plane was shot down while flying over the Burmese jungle as they took photographs for the Army. Baxterbear still remembers the feeling in his tummy when they were shot down. The Pilot badly injured thankfully released their parachute in order to avoid disaster, into the jungle canopy where their parachute became tangled in the trees.

9 long days went by. For five days they dangled helplessly amidst the branches of jungle growth until they were thankfully rescued by a Gurkha Unit. Four more days passed trekking through the jungle to a Red Cross ambulance. In those 9 long days, Baxterbear created 9 positive philosophies (one for each day), and has lived by them ever since.

Positive thinking was all Baxterbear had to carry him through those days, and it was positive thinking that kept him smiling, when the ambulance became stuck, an Indian Elephant was used to push them out of the mud! You must realise how much Baxterbear loves elephants, so he was TREEKLED to see one again after all he had been through, and realised that positive thinking could get him through anything!

After some months I’m happy to say the Pilot was well enough to be moved.The nurse had tried to repair Baxterbear’s ripped ear, sewn his torn shoulder with a piece of tartan.

They went to Africa to try to recover which lead them to live on a coffee farm in Kenya where they remained and recovered!

 “Baxterbear mission is to be positive and make a difference.”