No. 421 greets Louie

Things have been pretty busy at the bridge lately; many ferrets have
been passing over, and No. 421 was tired and snoozing at his post.
Oliver had been sitting on a cloud puff, resting from trying to learn
to ski, when he saw an old ferret resting by the post at the steps to
the Rainbow Bridge. He seemed to have a problem walking and was rubbing
his paws over the post, trying to find the steps.

"Hey No. 421," Oliver said. "We has a new visitor and he seems to be
having trouble. I'se goin' over to see if I can help."

Oliver went over to the other side of the bridge and spoke to the new
ferret.

"Hi, I be Oliver, page to Bridge Greeter No. 421," Oliver said. "How
can I help you?"

"Hello, my name is Louie, and I'm trying to find the Rainbow Bridge. I
was blind but now I can see a little but things are fuzzy. Could you
help me find my way over?"

"Sure I can," Oliver said. "Give me your paw. As we cross the bridge,
you will get stronger and your sight is already coming back. You is
goin' to like it here, you'll see."

The two ferrets, paw in paw, arrived at the other side of the bridge,
and Oliver introduced Louie to No. 421.

No. 421 stood up and said hello to Louie. He gave him his big smile and
shook his paw. "Do you have any relatives that you remember that might
be here?" No. 421 said.

"I had a ticket from the Receiving Angel with some names on it, but I
dropped it, and not being able to see, I could not find it," Louie
said. "I was hoping to see my friends Mr. Squiggles and Kiba, but I
don't know where they are."

No. 421 sent Oliver down to the Meadow of Dreams to see if he could
find Mr. Squiggles and Kiba. Oliver went to see Baking Bertha -- she
had a lot of customers and she knew everyone in the field.

"Hi Baking Bertha and Hi Honey," Oliver said. "I has a request. Do you
know anyone by the name of Mr. Squiggles and Kiba?"

"Mr. Squiggles, Mr. Squiggles" said Baking Bertha. "Honey, what was the
name of that special order we filled yesterday. Was that Squiggles?"

Honey checked the order sheet and said it was. They were living in the
mound at the north end of the field.

Oliver ran over to the mound and pounded on the door. "Mr. Squiggles,
Kiba, are you in there?" he said.

"Hello little fella," said a friendly ferret, "What can we do for you?"

"I has a request from Bridge Greeter No. 421 to bring you to the
Rainbow Bridge to greet your brudder Louie."

"Louie, our Louie is here," said Mr. Squiggles. "Come on Kiba, time's a
wasting, lets go greet our ol' buddy."

The three ferrets arrived at the bridge in time to see Louie flex his
stronger legs and blink his eyes several times. He looked at Mr.
Squiggles and Kiba and dooked a greeting.

"Hi Guys," Louie said. "I sure have missed you. We have a lot to catch
up on."

No. 421 told Louie to go home with his brothers and he would stop by to
see how he had settled in later in the day. "I'll bring my friends the
Gentle Breeze and the Shooting Star and you can send a message home to
tell your Hooman Mom you have arrived safe and sound."

The three ferrets, paw in paw, strolled back to the mound. Louie was
looking at all the things he had not seen in months, and was still
working the kinks out of his legs.

"This sure is a nice place to live," Louie said. "Do you have raisins
here?"

"Not only do we have raisins, we have them in paw print cookies," Mr.
Squiggles said. "We had the bakery make us some paw print cookies with
raisins in the print."

The three friends went on their way and No. 421 and Oliver settled down
to wait for their shift to end. As soon as the next Bridge Greeter was
there, No. 421 and Oliver were going to get some cookies to take home.
No. 421 had some duck soup cooking in the crock-pot, and cookies would
finish the meal nicely.

Mission completed, friends reunited, and all was quiet at the Rainbow
Bridge. No. 421 settled back to snooze for the rest of his shift.

[Posted in FML 6224]