Bother! Pooh Stuck in Custody Struggle

Winnie-the-Pooh sat in his climate-controlled glass case Thursday, his face frozen in a quizzical frown aimed directly at the mayor of New York. It was easy to imagine the toy bear uttering his famous “Bother! What shall I do?”

In recent weeks, Gwyneth Dunwoody, a member of the British Parliament, spotted the bear and his little stuffed friends at New York’s Donnell Library and decided they “look very unhappy indeed.” So she announced a campaign to bring Pooh and his pals back to their native England, where, as toys for the son of author A.A. Milne, they inspired some of the world’s best-loved children’s books in the 1920s.

“I think we’re going to keep him here for a while, keep him safe,” countered Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who arrived at Pooh’s case with a ready statement for the cameras and an appeasing jar of honey for Pooh.

“This is to show his friends in England that he’s being fed well and he enjoys New York cuisine,” Giuliani told a crowd of kindergartners, journalists and library officials huddled around the 78-year-old bear.

“I think Winnie-the-Pooh is an example of the very best in immigration,” Giuliani said. “He’s very, very proud of his background and heritage, but now he’s found a new land and he’s found a better life for himself here.”

“Does he have a green card?” bellowed a reporter.

The mayor leaned to the case and whispered “Hey, Winnie, ya got a green card?”

Then the mayor went on to argue that Pooh had three times as much chance of being stolen in London than in New York--due to Manhattan’s plummeting robbery rate.

In fact, the mayor was doing quite well in his pro-Pooh media event until he turned to the group of kindergarten kids and asked their ever-candid opinion on the animals.

“Do you think Winnie-the-Pooh likes us?” he asked the crowd at his feet.

“Noooo,” they cooed brightly as the mayor grimaced.

“Yes! Yes!” Giuliani coached his crowd for the next responses. “The right answer to these questions is, ‘Yes.’ ”

Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger and Kanga are on display at the midtown Manhattan library, the largest children’s library in the world. Tiny Roo, for followers of the Milne series, did not survive over the years to be preserved in New York with his friends. An English dog apparently rendered the baby kangaroo irreparable.

The other animals are so delicate that Giuliani was required to don white gloves to hold the stuffed bear for the cameras. The mayor handled the stuffed animal gingerly, not like a toy but like a delicate crystal vase.

The ragged collection of over-loved toys was originally bought for Christopher Robin, Milne’s son, who named Pooh after an orphaned bear cub in the London Zoo. Milne wrote seven books about the little round bear, who was always ravenous for honey, and his sweet, droopy comrades. The favorites, “Winnie-the-Pooh” and “The House at Pooh Corner,” have sold more than 20 million copies in 30 languages.

The original menagerie stayed with Milne until 1947, when they were taken on an extended tour of America. Pooh and gang were on display at Milne’s publisher’s, E.P. Dutton. In 1987, they were donated to the New York Public Library, where they have been on constant display to millions of fans--including Dunwoody.

Her charge to save the Pooh bear came just as British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Washington, admittedly on more serious matters. Asked about “Poohgate,” as some New York librarians are calling the issue, Blair shook his head and laughed.

“You said they looked a little bit unhappy there,” Blair said on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” “but I seem to remember from the old stories that they always did look a bit unhappy.”

Shortly afterward, a spokesman for Blair had a more official response: “The government position is that we admire the president and the United States, and we believe that they will look after [and] care for these animals sufficient for them to rest here, with the British people happy that they are well looked after.”