Dearest Bridge Greeter,

Would you be so kind as to check and make sure that Rascal arrived
safely? He left this life in early October after a short illness from
a condition that had apparently been smoldering for 2 years. But this
post is about Rascal and the joy he brought into my life, not the
painful way he left it. I first met Rascal with his buddy Sam, who
crossed in June 2007, when his owner contacted me and asked if I would
be interested in taking the two of them. You see, she had several other
animals that were housed in the same area as Sam and Rascal and, well
Rascal did what a ferret would do when he saw a dwarf hamster. The
details aren't important but the incident made this person realize that
ferrets and dwarf hamsters and other small animals should not be housed
in the same area. My first introduction to Rascal was in that area and
Rascal immediately took it upon himself to chew on my shoes. Yes, he
endeared himself to me right away. But Razzy, as I called him, was a
beautiful silver mitt boy with personality. When he first came to me
he would try and take a taste of my nose if given the opportunity but
in recent times he was a kisser. Many a night I would carry him to his
hammock and he would stick his snout in my mouth, because he could
smell chocolate!!!!!! Of course there wasn't anything there but the
smell but he did try. He loved towel rides and chasing first Sam and
after Sam crossed, Gideon through the tubes. You could really hear to
toenails on the plastic with those guys. They had so much fun chasing
and tackling each other. It was a joy to watch. Rascal was separated
from the other ferrets, other than Sam and Gideon, because he would go
into attack mode when he saw anyone else. But after Sam and then Gideon
crossed I decided to try him with the others on the theory that maybe
if it was just him mingling with the others he would be ok and he was,
so the last year he had a whole different group of friends but he never
had the relationship with them that he shared with Gideon and Sam. So,
now all three are together, or at least I hope so, which is the reason
for this post. Can you please find Rascal and make sure he found Sam
and Gideon as well as the rest of my crew and tell him and them that I
love them still and miss them so very, very much.

Ann, Cody, Jamie, Jazzy, Hershey, Stich, Snickers and Zoe

[Posted in FML 6537]