Hi, all.
My post is late this week because the Hoomin's computer has some internet
disease called 'Squirrel' or "Spanky' or something like that.  I can't
get onto the [log in to unmask] site at all, so please forgive me
if you are looking for a Greeting that you might have written to me about
there.  It's going to be ugly getting everything up and running.  My
Hoomin says that somewhere there is a teenaged hacker who is going to
have a very exciting afterlife indeed, when his time comes.  She wants
to Greet him herself.  So do a few million other Hoomins.
 
Anyway, I did make a special trip to the Cat Afterworld this week, to
check up a new arrival named Spotty for his Hoomin.  No flying through
the rainbow to get there this time.  I made the trip myself the easy
way, by walking across the worn wooden planks of the Bridge itself.
 
I know that gets some people confused.  The Rainbow touches the Bridge
at one end, the World of the living, but the Rainbow is not the Bridge
itself.  That's why you can see it from where you are.  If it were all in
the Afterworlds, here, you wouldn't be able to see it at all.  Did that
help explain?  Hmmmm.  Maybe not.  You'll understand when you get here.
 
Anyway, Spotty was really very easy to find.  He was sound asleep in a
sunbeam smack dab in the middle of a huge pillow covered with that red
and white paisley pattern that they print on bandanas and handkerchiefs.
There were four little kittens curled up and snuggled into his soft
belley fur, also sound asleep.
 
I hopped over quietly and poked Spotty very gently between the ears a few
times until his beaautiful eyes opened.  He looked up at me sleepily, and
I introduced myself, and told him why I had come.  He smiled in that way
that cats do, and said that he was really going to miss that Hoomin,
especially the way she rubbed the back of his neck and shoulders.
 
I asked him about his little friends, and he got a sort of embarrased
look on his face.  His whiskers were suddenly dragging a little, and he
was quiet for a little while.  I waited.  I'm used to the long silences
that you often get from cats.  He looked down at them, hugged them to
himself a little with his front legs, and said "They came across the
Bridge right after I did.  They don't know what's happened.  They think
I'm their Mommy."
 
I didn't say anything, because like I said, I know about cats and
silences.
 
Spotty started grooming them, one by one with his warm tongue.  He combed
their fur until it shone, and lay neatly in place.  Each little tail went
pointy, and shivered with delight, then curled back around each tiny
kitten to keep the warmpth in.Still not looking up, he said "I'm going
to take care of them until their real Mommy comes.  My Greerer said that
she's coming soon."
 
I still didn't say anything, but I did ease over and give each one of
them my own comforting lick on the head, right between their still closed
little eyes.  "They're beautiful," I said.
 
"They are, they are.  They're too little to know that they are at the
Bridge.  This is the only life that they will ever know, and I want it
to be good for them."
 
"It will be good," I said, "starting with you."
 
It was an easy trip back, I felt so much lighter than when I came.  Love
doesn't way a thing.
 
I met a little girl coming across the Bridge.  Her name was Farrah, and
her pal Oscar was waiting for her with me.  She was a little shakey after
the crossing, and Oscar and I helped ease her into a Recovery Hammie,
then we lay down beside her to comfort her and keep her warm.
 
Apparently, Farrah had crossed in her sleep, and hadn't really even known
that she was sick.  Oscar and I explained to her about heartworm, and how
it kills very quietly sometimes.  She said that she had been feeling a
little tired lately, but that she didn't have any pain at all.  She was
worried about her cagemate in the World of the Living, Sherman.  We told
her not to be afraid, her Mommy Carol was going to have him tested, and
treated if he needed it.
 
After that, Farrah felt much stronger, and we leapt from the Hammie one
by one.  Oscar asked Farrah where she wanted to go first, and she said
that she wanted us to bring her somewhere where there was something
wonderful to eat.  "I know!'"said Oscar, and off we went.  We didn't
even need our wings!
 
Once Oscar started leading us along the scent path through the grass, I
had a pretty good idea where we were headed, and it turned out that I was
right.  Once we passed the Ferretone Pool, there was only one place where
we *could* be going..., the FerretVite Tar-Pools!
 
I love the Tar-Pools!  Warm, brown, sticky Ferret-Vite bubbles up through
the forest floor there in three little pools, each about as big across as
a ferret can jump in a single leap.  Some daredevils like to try the
jump, but not me.  I do not want to land in one and need twenty friends
to groom me clean!  Sweet, warm, molassesy FerretVite!  It's so good, so
toffee rich that you can't lick it with your eyes open, one taste is such
bliss that you have to squeeze your eyes shut to keep them from popping
out of your head from pure joy!
 
We licked and gnawed and licked!  I was a very, very filling meal!  After
we had some water and cleaned our whiskers it could only be time for one
thing, of course...NAP!
 
Sandee
[Posted in FML issue 4502]