[2-part post, combined here]

My Name is FERRET

The silvery, low-slung, velvet-furred creature glided across the lush
grass on dainty feet that made barely a whisper of sound as they passed
through it. Its shiny, satin like nose twitching nervously as it
cautiously sniffed the air, nostrils flaring, its excitement apparent,
as though it found the world a precious plethora of enticing smells.
The tiny creature, though once a tame and much-loved pet, now lived
its life purely by its wits. A once pampered and catered to creature,
now found itself becoming almost feral in its search for survival in
an unfriendly and unwelcoming world.

And because of some harsh and wicked lessons learned not too long ago,
it now approached the house cautiously, ears erect and on alert, ever
ready to flee in a moment's notice. The tiny animal vaguely remembered
back to the time of plenty and hands that were once friendly. But all
it had now in its dainty head were just the memories of what once was,
but was no more. The most recent memories were painful rags of thoughts
mostly woven of hunger and fear. It knew that it was once a happy
creature willing to dance the dook of joy for its loving owners, but
now it no longer remembered how to dance at all. For the creature of
joy had slowly become a frightened creature of the night. It now slid
slowly around the parameters of the human world, taking what food it
found discarded there. Its rushed and hurried life lived frightfully
as it dodged unfriendly, raging dogs and loud, roaring cars.

On occasion it would stop and lift its tiny head for a moment, stopping
to quietly listen to the twinkling, crystal sounds of laughter from a
small child. And then with weary sadness it would remember when it too,
had once had a child that laughed just that way, joyful and full of
glee. But as quick as the wishful thought of wanting to be close to
the child occurred, it would quickly vanish as the waif-like creature
sadly thought of the human feet that had kicked out at it in anger and
punishment. It paused in its starving pursuit of food to remember the
cruel taunts of the children that had just yesterday slung jagged
chunks of rocks at its tiny head, rocks tossed with frightening
cries of "kill the rodent". Now it did not know all things human or
otherwise, but it knew that it was indeed not a rodent, for it still
remember proudly that its owners had said that it was a FERRET, and
they said the words with such pride and respect that it knew the name
had to be a good thing indeed. No, the melodious laughter of a child
was but a teasing reminder of what once was and back to a time when
joy was an every day thing. The tiny ferret paused in its search for
a moment, flopping down upon it dainty paws, as a almost silent sigh
escaped, closing its eyes for just a second, its thoughts, to rest and
remember a for just a moment longer.

By Kendra B. Lausman
(c) 01/04/2009


My Name is FERRET part 2

Fitfully, the tiny ferret slumbered as her dreams took her back to that
fateful day when the big, lumbering trucks rolled noisily into the
yard. That day when big, sweaty, strange men came into their home and
began to load all of her humans' belongings in the gaping hole at the
back of the truck. She remembered hiding under the dresser and
shivering in fear as her human pulled her from underneath. With soft
hands and soothing voice that woman of her's cooed to her with tears in
her eyes that began to slowly roll down her face. Dancer (yes, now she
remembered, that was her name, way back then) zipped out her tongue to
wash the tears from her Lovey's face. Her female human's name was
Lovey, because her male human was called Sweetie and her child was
Princess. She clearly remembered her humans using these names for each
other, with love in their voices. Her Lovey petting and cooed with
sadness in their voices and Dancer could not understand the words she
said, but she knew that it sounded painful and wrong. For her Lovey
kissed her tiny head and so did her Princess, then Princess ran from
the room crying so hard her little body shook. And then Lovey gently
placed her into a carrier that contained her favorite hammy and toys.
She spoke so softly that Dancer had to strain to hear what was said,
but the words even after she heard them, made no sense at all. She
heard stock market, job loss, moving and no pets allowed, all words
that made no sense at all to her young ears. Then she heard even more
confusing words; Craig's List, new owners and free to a good home.
Again, the words made no sense at all, but her beloved human spoke them
with the sound of hope in her voice and a tinge of pain hidden softly
in those same words. Tiny Dancer reached out her furry, little paw
trying to both touch her and at the same time to comfort her. For she
dearly loved her humans and needed them to smile at her once more, she
wanted them to not cry words of pain, she wanted them to not mutter
words that she could not understand.

And then her Lovey gently placed her in her pretty, pink carrier and
then handed it to a strange man that smelled like the old socks that
she sometimes hid underneath, in their clothes hamper. He wore that
same old sock smell that always before, had made her Lovey say yuck,
as she laughingly held her nose. The man was hairy and smelly and did
not seem to smile at all.. Dancer felt a cold chill run down her back,
one that made her shiver uncontrollably deep within. This human did not
seem friendly or kind and Dancer cried out in fear for her humans, her
humans that stood just inside the door, all three now cried openly, as
the smelly man and Dancer went quickly through it. Dancer threw herself
at the cage bars, all thoughts of self respect and dignity now gone,
for she did not want to go with this non-smiling, smelly man. She
began franticly gnawing on the bars, clawing and squealing in fear
and frustration. She cried and clawed and bit until she could do it
no more. And then she fell into an exhausted heap upon her hammy and
slept the drugged "dead ferret" sleep.

When Dancer awoke she found herself stuffed into a tiny cage, in a
dirty room with only the light of the moon to light the tiny, stale
room. Her food bowl held some huge pieces of old dog food that smelled
as though it had gone bad long ago. This was not her huge cage in her
nice room, nor her fancy food that momma ordered just for her. She knew
the man took the cage, for she saw it loaded in his truck, but no where
did she see it. This whole situation had to be nothing but a little
ferret's horrific nightmare. And she just knew that when the new day
began she would awaken from this strange nightmare and everything would
be all grand, once again. But alas, Dancer soon woke to the same sad
dungeon-like room with only herself and the flies for company. The
minutes rolled into hours and Dancer found that she barely had room
to turn around in. So she sadly lay upon the soiled and smelly clothe
laying over the broken and bare wire floor and sighed in despair. She
lay silent and still and thought painful thoughts of yesterday.
Thinking back to a time when her humans were happy and they all played
an exciting game of weasel tag with her.

Dancer laid still and puzzled over her fate, wondering why she was
here and why her humans were so sad? She knew that she always used her
litter box, she never bit her humans or made too terribly bad of a
mess. What had she done for her humans to send her here, here to such
an awful place? Dancer did not know what she could have done that would
have made her live here with the smelly man but she had a plan, and
when he came, she planned to run away. And later that night he came
stumbling into the room and roughly dragged her by her scruff from her
nasty, flesh tearing cage. Once he had her out, he held her into the
air and began to poke and prod at her tiny body with his nasty, dirty
unclipped nails. As he held her close to his face inspecting her with
his half closed eyes, she smelled an awful smell, one worse than any
that she had ever smelled before. She began to gag and began to
struggle harder than before to be released. The man tightened his huge,
callused hands and pulled her skin so tightly that it felt as if it
might tear into. Pulling it so tight that she felt that could not
breathe and in desperate fear she lashed out and bit him with all her
might. He shouted and then slung her tiny body clean across the room.
Dancer hit the wall, slid down it and laid there quivering and crying
in pain and fear. The man stumbled back to his overstuffed and ragged
chair, picked up his beer bottle and said, "the little A$$ bit me, well
I'll show her who's boss, that you bet I will".

Dancer laid there a long while trembling and trying weakly to breath
through the pain. She laid there fearing the awful man would come over
and hurt her even more. But she could not move and just laid there
whimpering. She closed her eyes and prayed for just enough strength to
crawl away, to crawl to somewhere dark and safe. She began the slow and
painful crawl across the cracked and torn floor. She crawled slowly
moving only a few inches at a time, stopping, resting and then starting
to crawl again. She cast a worried eye at the man in the chair, but the
nasty man paid her no mind. He just continued to mutter and curse and
drink his beer. When brave little Dancer finally reached the door she
found that it was hanging slightly open. For like all things she had
seen in this house it was worn and in total disarray and hung loosely
from broken and rusty hinges. She squeezed her lithe body out the
opening and into the ebony black of a dark and scary night. Dancer
quivered in fear and yet she knew her salvation had to be ahead because
hell surely was behind her. So little Dancer continued crawling until
she find the overgrown and tangled bushes that surrounded the
dilapidated house. She rested for a while trying hard not to breath
too deep. And when she rested long enough that her pain was only a
throbbing nuisance she moved forward again, fading quickly into the
inky night.

Then her only thoughts were those of finding her humans and returning
to her life from before. But it has been a long, long time now, since
Dancer left the smelly man's home. And sadly no longer does Dancer
search for her humans or her beautiful home. In fact she has almost
forgotten that life from before and how good it felt to be loved and to
belong. She has almost forgotten her humans and she figures that they
most likely have forgotten her.

Now Dancer just searches for food, for shelter from the pending storms
and a safe place to hide from the world when things get too big and
scary. And sometimes on a sunny, crisply clear day, she might hear a
certain sound that strikes a hidden memory burned deep within. And
that memory will cause her to stop and smile that crooked, little,
mischievous ferret smile and she will fondly remember what once was and
will never be again. And to anyone that bothered to look real close
they just might see beyond the ragged fur of that lost, little waif
and see her brilliant smile as she nods her head in that endearing way
that she has. Then if you listened real close you just might hear the
magically sound of her almost silent dook and know that she has just
remembered something good from way back when she used to be more than
just a ferret, back to when she used to be Dancer, the one chosen to
live in the world of humans and share their blessed love. Thinking to
way back when, when she used to be more than just a ferret, back to a
time when she loved and was loved in return.

By Kendra B. Lausman
(c) 01/04/2009

[Posted in FML 6205]