kitties and ed ugs

suki has two new cat friends. one is a small green hello kitty (he clips on to things!). the other is a sweet, little knit cat we found at an antique shop. suki named both of the cats herself. the green hello kitty is called george, and the knit cat is called boocha (most likely inspired by the beverage kombucha). boocha was made here in grand rapids, michigan by a company called mrs. ryan's. i did a small amount of research and found that mrs. ryan's stuffed animals were made in rutland, vermont as well. 

one of my biggest fears is bed bugs; i can barely even type it. this is why, although i love shopping at antique and second hand shops, i almost never allow myself to do it. a while back while cousins hillery and matt were in town, we went around to a few shops, and that is when we first spotted boocha. we did not buy her then because the man working was grumpy and we did not want to do business with him. after a few months went by, i was still thinking about this little cat so i thought i would go back just to see if she was still there and she was! the man working was nice that day too, so we brought her home. the first thing i did was open her up to make sure she looked clean on the inside. thankfully there was nothing scary hiding inside but still i washed her with hot water then dried her completely in the dryer on high heat, i then did that a second time. i don't feel nervous about the bb thing now, but for the first few days i was loosing sleep wondering if i did the right thing bringing this cat home. what precautions do you take when shopping for preowned things? any tips?