She came across the bridge with bells on, Sadie Midori did.  Prancing
to make them jingle.  She must have picked them up from the star dust
on her way up here.  Now you'd think that such a teeny, tiny thing would
be frightened of new found site and sound.  But not her.  Her fur was
saturated in stardust glitter.  Her halo and wings actually glowed.  She
didn't seem to want to have much to do with me.  And she was unsure about
ferrets passing by.  I had heard that she wasn't crazy about other
ferrets and feared them.  But I had a solution for that.
 
I told her to follow me, and we went to find Tyler, Duchess, and Jenny.
She stayed far off from the four of us.  I then told them all that we
were going to play a game.  We made our way to a big rock wall, and on
top was some dangling treats.  I told them that we were to scale it and
snag the treats.  Of course, smart alec, Tyler, spouted that there was no
point since they had wings.  I told him to think again.  I explained that
our wings were to be left behind.  And the only way to scale the wall was
to have the others hold the end of a rope to stop anyone from falling.
Duchess and Jenny were all into the adventure, as most girls are.  Tyler
was smiled and sighed.  But Sadie Midori was scared.  I explained to her
that this was a trust game.  And if she did it, she'd not only get the
treats, but I'd take her on a trip to where the kitties lived.  I
explained that these were special fer-kitties.  Kitties that thought
they were part ferret on earth ... and they LOVED ferrets.
 
This was a great motivator for her.  So, first Tyler went up and the
three girls held the rope.  Sadie wanted to be behind the two girls so
she could keep them in site at all times.  By the time Jenny went, she
saw that nothing bad would happen to her from the ferrets on the ground.
And she marveled at how the ascending ferret could trust the other three.
Finally we strapped her into the harness.  She looked back fearfully at
the three, but she took her first brave steps.  She tested the three and
let go on purpose, just two feet up.  Then she started again.  And let
go again.  Over and over.  I told Tyler to just be patient as he was
loosing his.  Finally, she stopped doing this and moved up the wall very
cautiously.  Every now and then, she'd stop and look back down at the
other three ferrets.  Next thing she knew, she snagged the treats.  Then
we all yelled, "Let go", over and over and over.  The three promised her
that they would not let go and that she could always trust them.  Finally
she did it.  She let go.  And she swung on the rope high above.  Then she
giggled as they let her down slowly.  She was quick to put her wings back
on as they represented her new found freedom away from earth.  I think
this exercise went a long way in showing her that these three would
always be there for her.  I took her to kitty heaven.  And she followed
and ran with the kitties all day long.  When it was time to go back home
and to find her a permanent cuddle sack, I told her that the next day
was going to be a day of lessons in ferret games.  I told her that in no
time, she was going to understand that it was not scary to play games
with other ferrets.  I showed her, her big sleepsack.  But after she went
inside of it, she popped her head out with wide eyes right away!  The
three new friends were curled up asleep in her bed.  They never roused,
nor bothered her.  I watched as she turned back around and delicately
curled up next to them, warm and content.
[Posted in FML issue 5030]