Hi- It was nice to hear from a bunch of people who get visits from
their babies who have crossed the Bridge- some quite regularly... I'm
one of those impatient people who, when I really want something and it's
not happening, I just "try harder"... In this case I don't think that
will help.  I just have that desperate feeling some of you may have
experienced where you just feel hungry (sounds like a strange way to
describe it, but that's the closest I can come to what I feel) for some
contact with your little guy or girl because you miss them so badly.  I
feel very helpless right now- I'm also a control freak, so the fact that
Scooter not only had an untimely death, but I also can't seem to "conjure
up" his spirit from somewhere, is very unsettling and frustrating to me.
 
Our remaining two ferrets, Freddy and Peanut, are about 5-1/2-6 yrs old.
They're slower, they sleep a lot, both recently had major surgery... So
when Scooter was around, I just didn't see or hang out with them as much-
they just slept a lot.  I feel really bad saying this but Scooter was so
much my special little guy that I look at the others and it almost makes
me miss him more to see them- and then I want to get away and go do
something else to distract myself... But today I took Freddy and Peanut,
one at a time, out in our backyard.  It has been a long long time since
they've been outside- we used to take them a lot more, but then we got
dogs and they needed to be outside and run around a lot, so they've got
the run of the backyard.  But they get along fine with the ferrets (the
feeling is not necessarily mutual; Freddy and Peanut "tolerate" the big,
noisy, hairy slobbery ferrets... While the 2 dogs follow them around like
the Pied Piper, they're so entranced with them!  If you have never seen
the look of disdain on a ferret's face, it is pretty funny.) So I took
Freddy out first and he seemed to really enjoy exploring- he's still
getting around pretty well and pretty quickly for an older guy!  We let
him smell and tunnel through Scooter's garden a bit, and he likes to walk
through every cobweb and anything stringy and hanging that he can, so he
did that and seemed to have a good time getting covered with stuff.
 
Peanut had fun too; she is deaf, and I've always noticed that she is much
more in tune with, and enjoys, things that touch her other senses.  She
is very tactile, and loves different surfaces and textures- I guess it's
one of her ways of seeing the world since she can't hear.  She also
seemed to enjoy herself, and we let her dig a hole in a little dirt
patch, which she had a ball doing.  Her little white face and pink nose
were all covered with dirt- it gave her a new "look" that was kind of
cute :-).
 
Ah, I will probably keep torturing myself with this idea, b/c it's in my
nature, but I couldn't help but notice that Scooter's wind chime just
started clanging away when the other two ferrets were outside with us.
Before I brought them out I'd been sitting in the yard and was wishing
for a breeze b/c it was hot.  Of COURSE it was the wind that picked up,
but it was a nice thought, for a second, to think that maybe Scooter
was telling me he "approved" of me giving Freddy and Peanut a special
experience by taking them outside to play.  I will have to take them
outside more often...
 
Jaime
[Posted in FML issue 4159]