Hi, all-
 
No new real news about SaraFerret and Hermionie, just a report from an
ermine that I speak with from time to time (well, actually I bring her
rasins because she is too shy around us domestics to come to the Fuit Bar
herself).  She says that she smelled two unfamilliar sets of tracks side
by side in the snow way up north where the days are short.  Could it be?
 
Perhaps.
 
I am busily interviewing new junior Greeters.  oh, I think I have a live
one for you!  Heh-Heh!  I am *not* hiring the Tasmanian Devil with the
lisp, that was just a rumor.
 
Back to work.
 
I met a little girl coming across the Bridge the other day.  Her name was
Blaze, and she was worried, and she was happy.  Worried, because she left
three babies behind.  Happy, because she had just weaned them, so that
they could survive on their own.  Nature can be hard, and it's hardest of
all to be a Mom.
 
Blaze knows this well, because waiting for her with me were nine of her
babies who didn't make it on their own for one reason or another.  They
waited here for their Mom with several wonderful volunteer ferret Mommas
and Daddies (one of whom was a cat) who cared for Blaze's babies...kept
them warm and dry...kept them clean and fed...and now it was time for
those volunteers to let go.
 
I tell you, there wasn't a single snout in the area that wasn't running
with tears.  Tears dripped off of our whiskers!  But they were happy
tears, as everybody escorted Blaze and her babies to the new, clean
burrow that the volunteers had dug, just for them, and lined with sweet,
sun-dried grass.
 
Blaze knows that *her* hoomin Mommy, Carol, will take good care of her
three babies left behind in the World of the Living.  If it is their
fate to live on there, they will, and they couldn't have a better hoomin
Mommy.  Some day, a long time from now, Blaze hopes to thank Carol
personally.
 
I met a little guy named Casey coming across the worn, wooden planks of
the Bridge.  I could actually hear him thumping across very energetically
from some distance away!  He was skipping!  He looked strong and healthy
and handsome.  Something about the way he was skipping, and the snapping
look in his eye told me that he must have been very sick indeed, in the
World of the Living, and he was celebrating his return to health and
vigor.
 
After he was reunited with his Business of Toby, Bear, Murphy, Moxy,
Baby, Sandy (no relation), Daisy, Beasley, Smokey, and Bandit, he told
me that this was indeed the case.  He left the World of the Living sick,
skinny, and bald.
 
But not hopeless...his Mommy helped him cross the Bridge, but before she
did, she told him all about it, about how he would find his forever,
Forever Home here with old friends and New.  About how he would never be
alone, or sick, ever.  About the wonderful things there would be to see
and to smell and to do.  And then...he saw the Bridge for himself, and
knew that it was all true.
 
Someday, a long time from today, he wants to thank his Mommy Sally for
that, and for other things, that just the two of them know about.  She'll
be able to find him in the Fleece Mountain, most likely.  That's his
favourite place for napping!  He really enjoys having white fur to get
all over the darker fleece pieces.  It's a ferret thing!
 
I met a little girl named Skweekyweezil coming across the Bridge.  Her
Brothers in Fur Bubbles Da WarWeezil and Custard stood with me to greet
her.
 
The first thing she wanted to know about after I got her her very own
pair of strap on wings and a standard issue Afterworld hammie?  RASINS.
Like, NOW.  It isn't a very far walk to the Fruit Bar from the Bridge, so
we walked past the blooming lilac (white *and* purple today) and followed
the little path through the long grass.  It lead us right where we wanted
to go.
 
There wasn't a very big crowd.  I lead her down the length of the Fruit
Bar.  Crushed pineapple, pineapple rings, pineapple chunks, watermelon
chunks, honeydew chunks, strawberry slices, green grape halves, purple
grape halves, spiced apple rings, cold stewed prunes...
 
"WHAT THE HEY!!!" yelled Skweekyweezil!  The rest of us stopped dead in
our tracks.  Huh?
 
"NOW I KNOW I"M IN PARADISE!!  LOOK AT THESE RASINS!!" And she proceeded
to scramble up *into* the steel tray holding the cold stewed prunes.  In
fact, she snorkeled her entire *head* into the mass of cold stewed prunes
and began to make thick,wet, gobbling and chewing sounds.
 
Yes, well, I had seen this particular reaction before.  I will admit,
they do look like rasins on steroids.  I saw no reason to correct her
mistake, let her enjoy herself.  She was hardly the first ferret to climb
up into the Fruit Bar, it happened nearly every day.  Bubbles and Custard
would have a good giggle at her expense, and that would be the end of it.
I don't even want to talk about what happened when I found the tray of
spiced apple rings for the first time.  Too embarrassing!
 
I met a little guy named Nacho coming across the Bridge.  Now Nacho, he
turned out to be another serious *eater*.  I Greeted him with his
Business of Jigs, Slim, and Luna, and the first thing out of his mouth
after "Hi!" was "Where's the food?"
 
I brought him right to the Fruit Bar, and wouldn't you know it,
Skweekyweezil was still there, curled up asleep in the tray of cold
stewed prunes.  One corner of it was empty, where she had licked it
clean.  Well, Nacho was not one to let a good opportunity pass.  He
figured if they were that good, heck, there were still some left!  So
*Nacho* climbed up into the tray of cold stewed prunes right next to
Skweekyweezil and began to snorkel!  "Grunt!  Gobble!  Slobber!"
 
Skweekyweezil's eyes did not even flutter when all of theis was going on,
not even when Nacho accidently bulldozed cold stewed prunes bodily onto
her by accident.  She was in a prune coma.
 
I wonder what the hangover is like?  (Giggle!)
 
Oh!  Jigs thinks that maybe it is time for his Daddy to play the
harmonica again.  (He'll understand.)
 
Sandee
[Posted in FML issue 4572]