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Hi, all-
Some folks have asked me just what is it that Saraferret does?  Well, no,
she is not still up North with the Kits in the Ermine Lands.  She is not
retired.  Lately she has been exploring her "Inner Kit" with some Tai Chi
classes and some Interperative Dance Groups that she leads.  She talked
a little bit about a Messenger Service, and she had a stylin' hat to go
with it, but we asked her please to just do some GREETINGS here at the
Bridge, the way she used to.  She said she would, and we are very happy
about that.  Just don't overwork her, it makes her bite!
 
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I met a little girl coming across the worn wooden planks of the Bridge
in her beautiful silver mitt coat.  Her name was Dakota, and she walked
very quietly, very carefully, as if she wasn't quite sure what was going
on.  Then, the breeze brushed by me and her boyfriend Runner, who was
waiting with me to Greet her.  She was still too far away to see us
clearly, but she certainly had our scent.  A look of astonishment
crossed her face!  She smelled Runner once again!
 
Dakota stood her ground and called his name in a small voice at first,
but she began to call it more and more loudly.  "Runner!  RUNNER!"
 
Runner, being a runner by nature, ran to his love and touched noses with
her, all still while she stood on the Bridge.  They touched noses, gently
licked ears and faces.  They rubbed heads, and began to make a warm
ferret pile right there on the wood!  I had to go up to them and
encourage them to move off of the Bridge itself, lest they block the
next incoming Greeting!
 
I knew that Dakota did not really care to hear about her lovely new wings
(silver, to match her coat) and her hammie quite yet.  In fact, all she
cared about in this new world was Runner, so I just nudged them into the
grass beneath the flowering lilac tree.  (Purple today.) I left her wings
and her hammie on the ground next to the re-united lovebirds, knowing
that Runner would tell her all the things she needed to know at the
proper time.  (I also shooed away some giggling kits who were hiding
behind the long grass, wanting to spy on the lovers!)
 
Some day, a long time from today, they can share their love with their
Hoomin, Ada, who gave them so very much of it that it continued on into
this world.
 
I met a little girl named Sandy coming across the Bridge, which she did
with a gallop and a great gasp!  When she came to a stop in front of me I
asked her worriedly if she was all right, and she just laughed.  She said
she was better than all right, she could BREATHE again, something that
she could only do with the greatest difficulty during her final illness.
She could breathe, she could speak, she could laugh!
 
Her Business of Pirate and Smokey Greeted her with me, and helped me to
help her understand her new job.  I had it on good authority (The Big
Boss just knows things) that Sandy was a Master of lost objects.  She
could find just about anything, almost as if it had never been lost in
the first place.  Well, in a land populated by so many Stashers, you can
only IMAGINE how very many lost things there are at any given time!
Shiny things, toys, hammies, wings, phonograph needles, pencils, reading
glasses, socks, the list is varied and enormous!  We need more Masters
like Sandy.
 
I am relying on Pirate and Smokey to give Sandy a complete tour of all
of our Afterworld Lands.  The three of them left with their wings about
an hour ago, and I don't expect to see them again for days!  Once she
has a complete scent map of the Afterworld, she can go to work, finding
all the inexplicable little things that mean so very much to us, and
whose loss drives you Hoomins bonkers!  (No, we're not sorry, not a bit!)
 
I met another little girl coming across the Bridge, and what a racket she
was making!  She was dragging a yellow dish behind her, and it bounced
along the wood, making all the noise.  Her name was Miss Mellow
BumbleBee, Miss Mellow for short.
 
Well, it seems that Miss Mellow had taken her medicine in that yellow
dish, and she was so very happy and excited that she would NEVER HAVE TO
EAT IT AGAIN, that she wanted the dish as a trophy!  Believe it or not, I
have seen that before.  The only problem was moving it, it was pretty
heavy.  Fortunately for her, Miss Mellow is a member of the Benita Gang ,
a very large Business.  A few of them slipped beneath Miss Mellow's dish
and got it up on their backs.
 
Wonderful!  Where did she want it?  Well, Miss Mellow very much wanted
to dig herself a burrow in some some cool, sandy soil somewhere nice and
quiet.  No Wild Blackfoot Camps nearby, no Kit Camp, if you please.  No
problem!
 
The Benita Gang formed a line with Miss Mellow's dish, and off they went
through the grass, to a riverbank nearby where the soil is both cool and
sandy.  And there, If you go today, you will find her dish, right next to
the entrance to her burrow.  The dish?  She keeps rasins in it.
 
Sandee
[Posted in FML issue 4666]