In 1976, at the tender age of 18, I began collecting anything and everything relating to the giant behemoth, the hippopotamus.  It has been my hobby and my passion ever since.  At last count, after 23 years of active collecting, I have over 1600 hippos!

I have devoted one room in my small bungalow to all my plush hippos and hippo toys.  I have many display cases scattered throughout the house (makes it much easier to dust) full of hippos!

I have soapstone and gemstone hippos;

 

porcelain and china hippos;

  

glass and crystal hippos;

silver  and brass and copper  hippos;  blue faience hippos;

Hyacinth (the ballerina diva from Fantasia)            and other ballerina hippos;

hippo eggs  ...  OK, so hippos don't lay eggs.

I have chicken, duck, and ostrich eggs with hippos painted on them.

hippo bells; hippo music boxes; hippo jewelry; and

hippo keepsake boxes.

On my enclosed front porch I have more hippos:

hippo toys, hippo puzzles, hippo planters, hippo games, and silly ceramic hippos.

and circus posters.

Everywhere you turn, in every corner of every room, (and even in the basement) there are hippos!  I have a fishpond in the backyard where I have a hippo fountain and will be placing hippo crossing signs and stepping-stones when my landscaping is complete.

I also have over 3-1/2 (100+ page) scrapbooks full of stickers, cards, photographs, catalogue pictures, news articles, product labels, etc -- with about 2 more scrapbook's worth of stuff to put in!), and the herd (actually the term is "bloat"...pretty appropriate for an animal of a hippo's size and girth, don't you think?) grows larger every day.
 
 
 

My "obsession" has even extended to my mode of attire - here I am at Halloween...pretty scary!!