SOCKS
 
Laying on his back the large sable mitt feels a cool breeze flowing across
his tummy.  He rubs his eyes with his paws, white as snow.  He remembers
how those mitts got him his name.  How long did he live with those other
humans?  2 months?  3 months?  They never even named him.  Then that man
came.
 
He remembered well.  He and his cagemate, a sexy little albino, went home
with the man he now calls dad.  How did it go again?  Oh yeah.  The man
looked at him and said, "Looks like you are wearing little white socks.
'Socks' it shall be then, that is now your name".  Socks thought for a
second.  Sure glad it wasn't something like 'Bootsie' or 'Mitts'.
 
Socks was feeling a bit lightheaded.  "Whoa!  Gotta cut down on that Fuzzy
Soup.  That was one hell of a hallucination last night!".  He opened his
eyes to see everything upside down.  "Guess I'm still hallucinating".
Rolling onto his belly, he looked up to see a familiar face staring at
him.  Rascal?  Nah!  Couldn't be.  Rascal smiled saying, "Hello Socks!"
 
Socks shook his head and muttered, "No, no hallucination!  This is for
real".  Socks stood up and wrapped his large arms around Rascal, "Well,
brother of mine, looks like we made it".  He looked at the two ferrets
behind rascal and said, "Hello Lady, hello Zeus, so this is The Rainbow
Bridge.  Nice!".
 
Socks laughed at the bewildered faces on Zeus, Rascal, and Lady.  "You're
wondering how I know, right?".  "C'mon!  I know Rascal left for the Bridge.
I heard dad talk about him meeting Lady and Zeus there.  So, since Rascal
is here, this must be The Bridge and you must be Lady and Zeus".
"Besides", he continued, "the weangle told me".  Lady gasped, "You spoke
with a weangle?" surprised filled her voice!
 
"What's a weangle?" asked Rascal.  Lady began to explain, but Socks
interrupted.  Socks could feel that familiar growling in his tummy.  He
turned to Lady, "This is the Bridge, right?  All the food, ferretone, and
nutrical ya can handle right?  Well, lead me to the food!  We can talk
about the weangle while we eat".
 
Rascal could not help but laugh.  Looking at Socks he chortled, "You
haven't changed at all, have you?".  "We gotta watch our brother here.  He
has a habit of picking on the littler kids!".  Socks just smiled and shook
his head, "Nah!  I'm not really a bully.  Didya ever notice what happened
when I did?  Dad would pick me up and scold me.  Then came the time out.
Then he would hold me close and stroke my fur.  He would say things like,
'Sorry I had to punish you'.  "That's really why I did it, for the extra
hugging and affection".
[Posted in FML issue 2905]