Bill,
I'll leave it up to you to post or not to post.  I have sent this to other
boards too, but I thought maybe some of our FML'er may not have read it and
might enjoy it for Christmas.  It is long.
 
[ Sure, there's room for a cute story on a LIGHT day.  BIG ]
 
                 The Ferret Who Discovered Christmas
 
 Berret was an unhappy little ferret.  He wasn't unhappy because he hadn't
enough to eat.   Every morning his food dish was filled almost to overflowing
and it never seemed to get empty no matter how much he ate.  He always had
plenty of clean , cool water to drink.  Even occasional treats to munch on.
 
 It wasn't because he didn't have a warm place to sleep.  His hidey-hole
under the couch was dark and warm, just the way he liked it.
 
 It wasn't because he didn't have any toys to play with.  His hidey-hole was
packed full of all sorts of treasures that he had carefully collected over
the year he lived there.  He had his squeaky toys, his ball, his shiny
papers, his collection of socks, and lots and lots of other neat things.  But
even squeaking his favorite toy mouse didn't cheer him up.
 
 He sighed, his pink nose wiggling ever so slightly.  He wearily put his head
down on his white-tipped, front paws, and sighed again.
 
 Perhaps it was because everyone around him was unhappy too.
 
 The little girl who always played with him and held him and gave him wet
tummy kisses, no longer came out of her bedroom to see him.  Berret would
sneak into her room when no one else was looking.  He would climb up on her
bed to see if she would play, but she didn't move.  She just lay there with
her eyes closed and with tubes in her arms going to bottles hanging beside
the bed.  She never even moved when Berret licked her ears all over.  That
used to wake her up screaming and giggling, and then she would grab him and
kiss him and rub his tummy until he flipped and jumped and twisted and
danced.  Now she felt hot when he touched her.  She hadn't awakened in days.
 
  Once he heard "Mom" and "Dad" talking in low voices.  They were very
worried too.  They talked about the doctor and whether they were wrong not
putting her in someplace called a "hospital".  But Dad said that the doctors
told them that they didn't really know what was wrong with her and that they
couldn't do any more for her and that all they could do was wait and hope.
 "Besides, she'd want to be home at Christmas."
 
 That was another confusing thing, this "Christmas".  He would listen to the
television and hear people talking about Christmas Trees and Christmas
Presents and someone called "Santa Claus".  Everyone spoke in such excited
and happy voices about Christmas.  "Just what was Christmas?"  Berret
wondered.  If he could find this Christmas maybe he'd feel happy again.
 
 Mom and Dad brought a tree into the house and put it in the living room.
 They hung lots of colored lights on it that blinked and twinkled.  They hung
lots of colored balls on it that shimmered.  The tree was beautiful.
 
 
 Berret decided that maybe what he needed to find Christmas was a Christmas
Tree of his own.  He found a branch from the tree that Dad had cut off.
 Berret dragged it to his hidey-hole.  Then he climbed into the big Christmas
tree and took some of the colored balls.  He found some funny looking,
sparkly things too and dragged them away.  He even managed to take off an
entire string of blinking lights, and he pulled and tugged them to his
hidey-hole too.  Even though they didn't blink anymore they were still
pretty.
 
 There he propped up his tree and hung his new-found treasures on the little
needles.  But it didn't make him feel any happier.  "Maybe Christmas isn't a
tree."
 
 The next evening was Christmas Eve.  He went into the living room.  Now
there were lots of presents wrapped up in colored paper under the tree.
 "That looks just great!"
 
 Berret ran back to his hidey-hole and collected up all of his treasures and
put them under his tree.  He still didn't feel happy.
 
 "Maybe Christmas isn't presents.  And if Santa Claus just brings more
presents that can't be Christmas either."
 
 Berret felt worse than ever.  "Christmas isn't a Christmas Tree.  Its not
presents.  Its not Santa Claus."  Would he ever find out what Christmas was?
 
 Later that night, after Mom and Dad were asleep, Berret slipped into the
little girl's room.  The room was dark and gloomy.  There was no Christmas
Tree here.  There were no presents.  Only the little girl quietly sleeping in
her bed.  Berret felt sadder than ever.  Then he had an idea.
 
 He ran back to his hidey-hole.  He grabbed his tree and dragged it to the
little girls room.  He worked and worked and finally got it up on top of the
table by her bed.  He worked and worked and got the lights plugged in, so
they once again twinkled and blinked.
 
 Berret ran back to his hidey-hole and gathered all of his carefully
collected treasures and brought them, one at a time up, to the bedroom and
placed them under the little tree.
 
 The lights never twinkled and blinked so brightly.  They made the once
gloomy room flash with colors - red, now blue, now green, now yellow, then
red again.  The treasures were piled high around the tree.  Berret felt
something deep inside.  Not quite happiness, but it felt good.
 
 He slowly climbed up the bedspread and walked up to the little girl. He
climbed up onto her pillow, then put his nose gently in her ear.  He started
to lick her ear as his way of saying, "I love you."
 
 
 Suddenly, in the middle of a lick, he thought he heard a soft giggle.  He
kept on licking and pretty soon he was sure it was a giggle.  Then a soft
"eeee!"  Then a louder "Berret, you stop that right now!"  The little girl's
hand came up and gently closed around Berret's middle.  She gave him soft,
wet tummy kisses and then rubbed his tummy.  Berret was so happy that he
started to "eeeek" and "ooook" and dance around the bed, jumping so high and
so fast that he fell off and thumped loudly on the floor.
 
 Berret heard footsteps running down the hall.  The door opened and Mom and
Dad rushed into the room.  Dad stopped when he saw the little tree blinking
on the table and Berret's pile of treasures around it.  "What's going on?" he
asked , sounding a little bewildered.
 
 Then they both saw the little girl, now wide awake and smiling.  They rushed
over to her and hugged and kissed her.  Then Mom seem to notice the tree for
the first time.  She looked very puzzled.
 
 "Where did that come from?" she began to ask, but then stopped and accepted
yet another miracle that special night.  She held her daughter tightly; happy
tears running down her cheeks.
 
 Berret silently left the room.  He went to his now dark and very empty
hidey-hole.  Berret never felt happier.
 
 "Now I know what Christmas is all about.  It isn't about Christmas Trees or
presents or Santa Claus.  Its about sharing and family and most of all, its
about love."
 
   THE END
 
Merry Christmas
From Dick and Joan Bossart
and The 4 Li'l Paws Ferret Shelter
[Posted in FML issue 1046]