It wasn't always like this! There was a time when we all lived in peace
and harmony. A time when we all shared everything and cared about each
other. What went wrong? When did it start going awry? Where there
warning signs I failed to notice them. Was this going on for a long
time, slowly stewing or did it just happen over night.

I have pondered this many evenings after everyone was peacefully asleep
in their own beds. Is this just a temporary thing or our new way of
life. I guess I won't know until something else changes. But once, in
the not to far past, my elderly, bed-ridden mother and the ferrets
loved each other. The babies were her companions, her playmates. They
shared toys, treats and an occasional snooze together. Now I can be
doing the laundry or cooking a meal and I hear Mom and ferrets
screaming. My God, what horrible disaster has befallen them?

I jump the hurdles of ferret toys and heaps of dirty laundry and run
into the living room only to discover that Mom is holding her doll by
the arm and the ferrets have the feet while a vigorous game(?) of tug &
War persues. Mom is shrieking, "Mine, mine." The ferrets are squealing
and tugging with all their might. Mom losses her grip, the ferrets have
won this bout and over the side of the bed they go, down the hall,
around a corner and disappear, toy and all. Mom is crying.

Later that day the mayhem starts all over. This time it is the big red
frog that fall victim to the greed of people and fuzzbutts. Mom wins
this round and she sends the ferrets over the side, emptied-pawed.
With sad little faces, they slump off under the sofa to rethink their
strategy for a future attack. I go in and check on Mom and she is sadly
lying there with no toys. I walk into the bedroom and pull out all her
toys and take them back to her. Later I look back again and the ferrets
are all on the floor, surrounding Mom's bed, looking up at her. I can
see their eyes scanning the bed, counting the toys. In their little
minds I hear, "Mine!"

It isn't as if the fuzzbuts don't have a thousand toys of their own,
much more than Mom will ever have. Will there ever be peace here again?
Will I ever get tranquilizers or ear plugs?

[Posted in FML 6640]