MONTREAL -- Raplapla is a handmade toy store with surgical tools at the ready to save the lives of stuffed toys.

The ER for stuffed toys opened its doors five years ago, and has been full ever since.

The business on Villeneuve St. in the Plateau Mont-Royal Borough even has hospital beds for the patients to rest in.

"The beds are there to calm people down," said chief surgeon Dominique Dansereau. "Sometimes if they're really insecure, I send them pictures by email a couple of days later to say he's still well and I'm taking care of him."

Half of the patients at Raplapla's Hospital for Cloth Toys are brought by children who maybe loved their toys a little too much or had them loved too much by a family pet. The other half are adults wanting to restore a childhood toy.

"You have to understand why people love their toy and how to repair it so it keeps the special part," said Dansereau.

Reactions range from children laughing at seeing their toy repaired to adults who become emotional at seeing their treasured friend returned.

"They kind of well up or they get silent and pay for their stuff and they're really contemplating the fact that their toy is back to life," said Dansereau.