Cant find saved puppet when reopening Character Animator

So when starting a new puppet after going back and forth from character animator and adobe illustrator working on it, after i saved it and closed the app when reopening animator to continue working on puppet i cant seem to find the puppet anywhere. I can in illustrator but not in animator as i had it open at first going between apps. Do i save in illustrator as a pdf, ai, or one of the other like ait? Then when opening animator again how to i find it? Do i click file and open recent project, or import, or click scene or another way in history or something? Seems this should be so strait foward and simple to find or maybe im just getting frustrated and making it more complicated than what it acfually is. I basically know how to fully work on the puppet layers and rigging but when it comes to finishing the puppet, saving and/or opening the puppet again to use in another or new scene or even the same scene i am off on. Please if anyone has had this sort of problem or knows where i am going wrong at please let me know.