When Terry Rielly got home from tour he realized how much he was missing his constant stage companion for the last 20 years.

Harry, the stuffed but popular bear, went missing from Rielly’s van nearly a month ago.

“It’s a bit upsetting, you know,” says Rielley, best known for his annual Teddy Bears’ Picnic. “At some point I actually thought, well Harry will retire, because he’s been around like I say for 20-odd years, but it’s just sad to see the relationship be terminated that way.”

Rielly put up a poster at the Dominion supermarket from where Harry went missing and has spread the word he would like to hear the bear is OK. He says he accidentally left his van unlocked in the parking lot after a performance, but when he returned nothing but the bear was missing.

“My sense is that someone just said ‘Oh, there’s a wonderful teddy bear I think I’ll keep him,’ and I really don’t blame them because Harry is very cute,” Rielly says. “Maybe he was bear-napped temporarily … but you know I think that anyone who realizes how much Harry means to me then he will eventually come home.”

Describing the bear as between two- and three-feet tall, round, “rolley-polley,” “huggable,” and “very cuddly,” Rielly says Harry has been hugged and carried around by tens of thousands of children since his stage career began.

“He’s very cuddly and every now and then I’ve touched up his nose because his nose gets a bit worn,” he says.

Rielly reflects on fond memories of performing with Harry in telling the story of his first performance and how the bear got his name.

“I was actually on my way to do a show in the Reid Centre in Mount Pearl and I stopped into the Village Mall … and I heard this voice calling me from a shelf and I looked over and there was this teddy bear,” he says. “When I introduced him (on stage) … I said well I don’t have a name for him yet and a little girl yelled out Harry and I said perfect name for him and actually I met that girl a couple of years ago … she’s now in her 20s.”

Harry has been a staple of Rielly’s performances and records and when children ask if a stuffed animal can really speak and sing, Rielly always reminds them that Harry can speak in his imagination.

There is a reward for Harry’s safe return that Rielly says he doesn’t want published, but he does say that there will be no questions asked about how the person got the bear.

“If you’re a young child and you see a teddy bear as cute as Harry it would be pretty difficult not to pick him up you know, so bear-napped, theft … someone borrowed him for a while, that’s what I’d say, someone bear-owed him and its time for him to come home if he wants to come home.”

Rielly has more than 100 teddy bears, but when asked if any of them could take Harry’s place on stage, he sounds a little offended.

“Harry cannot be replaced,” he says. “If I don’t see Harry again — I haven’t really faced that — but I mean I guess, in a simple answer, I’ll just move on and find another bear ... but it will never be Harry.”