We have just had two hectic weekends out fund raising,.  Now last year my
friend an I spotted a lovely little hand puppet that looked like a sandy
ferret kit.  said friend bought it for me as a birthday gift,,
 
We were taking along some ferrets for people to handle under supervision
but I can remember wanting to touch an animal when younger but was not
allowed to as I was too young, I decided to take " Fred" my hand puppet
so that even very little ones could touch and not feel left out..  Fred
was placed inside a soft play tube and I started to work him, within five
minutes three adults had been taken in and asked if they could stroke the
tiny one,, it then occurred to me that perhaps Fred could help us ,so
every adult that got taken in was asked to put ten pence into our
tin,,think this may equal out to about a cent
 
All was going well until one woman came over and spent five minutes
trying to coax Fred from his tube , her daughter and son in law were
crying with laughter because the woman was convinced that Fred was real,,
a she finally turned to me and said that she would have to go as her
family were waiting for her.  she looked back at Fred and said that she
wished she could take him home with her, at this point I slipped him of
my hand and handed him to her,, OH MY she just burst into laughter and
thought it was so good,Fred helped us to fill the tin that week.  Sunday
this week and another show, and yes Fred came too, not been there long
before a gentleman came up and started on about how he has kept ferrets
for forty years,he asked if he could stoke Fred and of course I allowed
him to,
 
man-  Is it a baby?
 
Me-  No sir  but it is only small
 
man- odd colour, and eyes are so big, not seen any like this before,
 
Me- no he is a bit of a rarity.
 
Man- do you wash it often?
 
Me- only when he gets grubby.
 
Man- How  do you wash him?
 
Me_ Oh I just throw him in the washing machine on delicates and let then
give him a short spin.
 
Man- WHAT!..  THAT IS SO CRUEL.
 
Me _ not really sir,
 
I then proceeded to remove Fred from my hand and show the ferret expert
that Fred was in fact a hand puppet.
 
The gentle man glared at me and then stormed away he was clearly not
amused, there had been quite a crowd of people gathering around us who
all bust into laughter and then promptly passed the tin around,,
 
Just goes to show you can fool all the people some of the time.  some
of the people all the time but not all of the people all of the time.
we now have managed to get some Fred kits to sell so hopefully at the
next show we can have even more fun,,
 
Bless you and Blessed Be.. Ann
[Posted in FML issue 4266]