Once upon a time, a little boy named Pierre got a stuffed animal monkey.

"Pierre named him Boo-Boo Monkey," writes his mother, Celine. "It is his best friend, he takes him everywhere, he wanted me to put some diapers on monkey (because according to Pierre Monkey is still a baby and needs diapers .... so cute) and some days I had to make some clothes too (LOL I can't believe I did it with paper towel), and of course Monkey would join us for dinner and always sleeps with Pierre."

Or at least Boo-Boo Monkey did sleep with 4-year-old Pierre until the stuffed animal went missing somewhere in Federal Hill.

"So you can imagine how hard it is for my little guy," writes Celine, who shared her plight with me but not her last name.

"Not a big deal for us, so we bought another one on amazon and gave it to Pierre, but it did not do the trick, Pierre knows that it is not his monkey."

If there is a happy ending to this tale, it hasn't been written yet. Boo-Boo remains missing.

Having gone about the usual ways of searching for lost toys, they've come up with an unusual one: lost posters, like the kind you'd see for missing cats and dogs.

The poster, which former Baltimore Sun reporter Diana Sugg brought to the newsroom's attention, bears a photo of the brown furry fellow under the word "LOST."

"My name is Boo-Boo Monkey," it reads. "I was lost on June 10th, 2011. I have a zipper on the back of my head and a diaper made with paper towel. REWARD $10."

Celine does not hold out much hope that Boo-Boo will turn up, but she said they had to do something.

"I am pretty sure we will never find it again," she writes, "but Pierre was happy to put some flyers."