Dear Kristina,

I was late in the afternoon and the sky was beginning to fade to night.
I was in the middle of sledding with a bunch of my best fuzzits friends
and quite a few of my fuzzy brothers and sisters when Hobbes arrived.
As you may have read before in past greetings, Hobbes is not a big fan
of snow. Yet there he was all muffled and completely bundled up in his
puffy, neon green winter suit, and he looked like a badly decorated
Christmas tree. Granted green *is* his favorite colour, but I think he
could have found a more subtle shade then neon wouldn't you? At any
rate, he showed up and quickly reached into his courier bag, handed me
a pink coloured scroll and off he went, grumbling all the way,

To tell you the truth, I didn't even get a chance to read the scroll
before I saw Luuna and Ivan, complete with his backpack, come running
in my direction. So I simply reached out with my thoughts and felt a
deep sadness when I realized it was Django who would be coming our way.
I know that it is my job is to be there to greet those who arrive, and
that I take great honour in doing so, but I still feel the sadness that
occurs with earth bound loss. Because while love is endearing and lasts
forever, and we are here, and are safe and without burden and in the
shelter of the arms of the Big Guy, we still miss those we left behind.
That is why we have Comfort Angels, not only for us, but for you as
well ..... most especially for you. These fuzzy boys and girls come and
watch over those who are in need. It matters not if it for strength or
for courage, or for comfort, they come and give aid to those who need
it most. Dozens of them have been watching over you these past few
days, and they will continue to do so for as long as you need them, and
I equally as certain that you will have just as many people from the
FML who will be there for you as well. So know that you are surrounded
by love, and most of it is very fuzzy.

Now back to my greeting.

As Luuna and Ivan arrived, I noticed that Ivan was carrying what looked
like a a clear, plastic, domed cup with something red in it. Now I have
a favourite treat that is red, it's licorice, so I had to wonder, could
it be a cup of, I don't know? ... red licorice??

"So whatcha got there Ivan?", I asked as I rocked back and forth on my
feet..

"It's a red Slurpee from the Heaven/11 here, get it, Heaven/11, instead
of 7/11, don't ya think the Big Guy got a great sense of humour?", he
giggled and then added, "It's for Django, it's her favorite hooman
treat, I figured if I had something that reminded her of mom and home,
things would be easier for her."

Luuna nodded in agreement and said, "I don't think she was ready to go,
but then again, who's ever ready? I just know that Ivan and I want to
be there for her, and we want to be the ones to show her the Viewing
Pool if you don't mind? I know that our mom would be so happy to know
that Ivan and I have always been watching over her and Fitch, Malice,
Cash and Eva, and that as soon as we felt Django was on her way we came
looking for you, so that we could go to the Bridge with you."

"You both must know that you are more then welcome to come along, after
all, she's your sister!!", And then I looked at Ivan and said, " You
know, when you arrived here, and told me about her, I looked her name
up, because I wanted to know what it meant. I found out some really
interesting things. For instance, did you know there was a very famous
gypsy jazz guitar player named Django Reinhardt? There were also these
things call spaghetti westerns with a Django The Avenger in them. And
there seems to be a Django tribe of Australian aboriginals, cool huh?
Oh and I found out it's gypsy (Roma) in origin, but the only meaning
I could find was "I awake" and I thought it most perfect for her.", I
aimlessly babbled.

Luuna and Ivan looked at one and another and then laughed and finally
Ivan put his free paw around my shoulder, and patted me gently on my
back and said, "Come on Pie, let's get going ok?"

I nodded and then turned to my sledding buddies and waved them on over,
and then off the whole lot of us went to the Bridge with Ivan and Luuna
in the lead. And as we walked, we sang. Wonderful, magical things
happen when we sing, and even more as we sing for those coming home to
us. So while it may have been cold outside, we did not feel it. We felt
only the warmth of our hearts and the desire and need to bring with us
all the love we had to share with Django. And while it was becoming
dark outside, we had light, we had the beautiful and glorious light of
our spirits which had manifested itself in a physical sense so that we
all glowed and lit up the path in a wide variety of dreamy colours. And
we had cheerfulness and laughter and so many other things to give to
her. And when we finally arrived at the Bridge, it too was all glowing
softly, and across it came this tiny, delicate, sable beauty who was
all a washed in pinks and blues of her own beautiful spirit and in her
paws she held this toy, which she squeaked and then it was followed by
this tiny voice calling out.

"Ivan? Ivan? Can you hear me?", and she continued squeaking that toy.

I could see it was a beaver and she was squeaking it for all that it
was worth and calling out for her brother. Ivan looked at me with tears
of joy in his eyes, and handed me that Slurpee and ran right to her and
picked her up and gave her the biggest hug I have ever seen, and she
squealed and the beaver squeaked and Ivan dooked and we all laughed,
because it was a wonderful site to behold.

Afterwards, when she had the opportunity to see you and the rest of her
family through the Viewing Pool AND she had her Slurpee, she told me to
tell you that she loved and still loves you so very much, and that
ticker you told me about. well, it's working just fine now, and it been
given new life by the Big Guy, and it will be working for a very long
time now. She also told me to tell you that she's counting those ticks
too, until she gets to see you again.

In Love & In Comfort,

Pie O' Pah

[Posted in FML 6244]