This greeting is a very special greeting.  It is dedicated to all ferrets
who hav e been abused or neglected.  May they all one day find peace.
 
Sandee
 
                             -----------------
 
The Boss had told me just a day ago that I was going to be greeting a
fuzzy named Lillie.  When I looked on my new-arrivals list, I realized
that I had no information on Lillie whatsoever.  That was rather odd.
How was I supposed to know it was her?  I did not know what she looked
like, who her hoomins were (if any), or what it was that had caused her
to come to the Bridge.  All I knew was her name - Lillie.
 
I wanted to know more about Lillie, so I went to go see the Boss.  When
I asked about Lillie, I could see in his eyes that he was disquieted,
and he remained silent.  He looked like he wanted to say something, but
choked it back.  I was dumbfounded.  I had never seen the Boss like this
before.  I didn't know what to make of it.  I could not tell if he was
saddened or angry, because I really hadn't see him in either condition.
More or less, what he looked like was tired.  I left him not really
knowing what to think.
 
I headed down to the Bridge.  When I got there, however, The Boss was
already there.  I approached the Bridge to look for Lillie, but the Boss
turned his head gently as if he meant me to stop.  He was kneeling on the
Bridge, and in his hands he held a small, sable-colored female fuzzy.
She didn't look to be two years old, and was nowhere big enough to fill
the Boss' hands.  She was peacefully sleeping, her tail tucked over her
nose.  Breathing slowly and quietly, she looked just like any other
fuzzy.  Every once in a while, however, I would hear her whimper softly
in her sleep.  Each time she whimpered, the Boss would take his finger
and ever so gently stroke the back of her head and neck.  It seemed to
soothe her, and she moved a bit, curling tighter into a ball.
 
Was this Lillie?  Watching the Boss and this sleeping fuzzy together made
me feel as if I should quiesce.  It was a very intimate thing watching
them both.  I wanted to ask the Boss what was happening, and if this was
Lillie, but I decided that I shouldn't disturb either one of them.  I sat
on the ground near the end of the Bridge and waited patiently.
 
The Boss stayed on the Bridge for hours with this young fuzzy in his
hands.  For bits and pieces, I fell asleep, but then awoke again to find
the Boss still kneeling in the same position he was in when I had closed
my eyes.  I didn't know what to do, exactly, so I stayed still.  I
thought to myself that if this wasn't Lillie, then Lillie must not be
coming.  But that couldn't be right, could it?  The Boss wouldn't have
told to me to come here if Lillie wasn't coming, would he?  It must be
her, I thought.  Who else could it have been?  I remained right where I
sat.  Besides, sitting here with the Boss was something that hardly any
of us ever got to do, and it was very peaceful.  I felt as if nothing
could harm me.  I would wait as long as he needed me to.
 
The Boss knelt there silently for hours while the young fuzzy slept,
and only occasionally would she whimper.  Her whimperings became less
frequent, and over the hours they eventually stopped.  Occasionally, he
would stroke her head and neck, and she would stretch a bit, yawn, and
then curl back up into a ball.  I hadn't noticed it before, but there was
no wind blowing the leaves of the trees at the Bridge.  The stream under
the Bridge was almost glass-like, flowing with almost no sound.  It was
as if the wind and the water were trying to be still for the Boss and
this young fuzzy.  I smiled, and slowly nodded my head.  Ay, I knew
myself what they were trying to do.  We were one, the wind, the water,
and I.
 
Suddenly the Boss stood, the young fuzzy still in his hands.  She was
stretching and yawning, and appeared to have started to awaken.  The Boss
looked over at me and told me that he would be back, and then he took the
young fuzzy somewhere else without ever telling me where they were going.
I waited.  What else could I do?  He had told me that he would be back,
and I'm sure that he was expecting me to be here.  I still didn't know if
this young fuzzy was Lillie or not, but it seemed not to matter so much
now.
 
The Boss returned after a little while, and right away he came to me and
held my paw.  The warmth of his hands is something hard to explain.  They
just don't make your paws warm, they make your entire body feel warm and
at ease.  He looked at me and nodded.  I knew that I could ask him now.
 
"Was that Lillie?" I asked.
 
"Ay," he said, "It was."
 
"Was?" That was a funny word to use?  Didn't he mean "is?" Had something
happened to Lillie?  Was she still here?  The Boss could see the look in
my eyes, and he drew me close to him.  It was an amazing feeling, being
so close to the Boss.  He explained to me what had happened to Lillie
back in the Hoomin world.  She had been abused by a despicable bunch of
hoomins for qu ite some time.  Luckily, a Kind Soul had rescued her.
This Kind Soul could not keep Lillie, however, and Lillie went to live
with a man who had promised to keep watch over her.  The whole time
Lillie was in the Hoomin world, the only fuzzy friend she had was her
brother Vash, and for a short while they were very close.  But the man
was not what he had seemed, and even though the Kind Soul had checked
in to watch over her, Lillie's mostly unhappy life was soon over.
 
"Was she hurt?" I asked the Boss.
 
"Ay, she was.  Very badly, I'm afraid," the Boss replied.
 
It finally dawned on me what the Boss had been doing while he was
kneeling at the Bridge with Lillie.  I had felt it myself when he had
taken my paw.  He had been healing her in his hands!  With every caress
of his fingers, Lillie was being healed.  All of this had happened while
she painlessly slept.
 
I wondered where Lillie was now.  It had been on my mind ever since the
Boss had used the word "was." I asked the Boss where she had gone.
 
"She's gone where you and your hoomin will someday go, Sandee," he
replied, his face looking tired, "I cannot tell you where, only that one
day you both will leave here for that place.  It is a beautiful place,
Sandee.  Truly beautiful.  You will just have to trust me."
 
"Did Lillie have any hoomins to go with her?" I asked.
 
"Ay, no - no hoomins will be going with her," he replied, "Eventually she
will meet with her brother Vash.  The hoomin that might have gone with
her will not be going there.  He has let her down, and has not earned his
place there.  It makes me quite sad, Sandee."
 
I quietly nodded my head.  I left the Boss to head back to my hidey-hole,
worn out from the experience.  I was a bit wiser, however, and I thought
I understood things a bit better.  And then, I wasn't sure I understood
things at all.  It was difficult to understand exactly how I was feeling.
All I could think about was Lillie and what had happened to her in the
Hoomin world.
 
As I walked back, something happened that had never before happened at
the Bridge.  The sky darkened, and the clouds turned grey and meshed
into each other, hovering close to the ground.  I felt a drop of water
on my head, then a few more.  I looked up into the sky and water pelted
my eyes.  My goodness, it was raining.  For the first time ever, it was
raining.
 
Sandee
[Posted in FML issue 5190]