Elmo's cast - trash or treasure?

This evening I was tossing something in the kitchen trash can when a flash of bright orange caught my eye. Upon closer inspection, I beheld the leg cast that Granny had crocheted for an Elmo doll that she and Babo gave to Joshua after he broke his leg. I quickly retrieved the dainty web of orange yarn and asked Joe if he had thrown it away. He said no, of course not, but that earlier Joshua had brought Elmo to him and asked him to take the cast off of the doll's leg. Then Joshua must have thrown the cast away himself! They boys have shown an interest in disposing of things in our household trash cans lately, but up until now they have been very good about discerning trash from treasure and not throwing away anything important. I'm sure that in Joshua's eyes, Elmo's cast was indeed trash, since he had witnessed his own cast being sawn off and thrown in the trash at the orthopaedic doctor's office a few months earlier. But Elmo's little Granny-made cast is definitely too cute to throw away, and I'm sure that someday Joshua will appreciate that we rescued it for him.