Early morning at the Rainbow Bridge has Muldoone at his appointed spot
awaiting the arrival of a little girl fuzzy named Rosie.
 
The music in the wind had begun to change and the sad sweet melody could
be heard dancing softly on the breeze.  The Ferret Promise song played
for each and every arrival, whispering to their hearts; "rest now
wee-one, you are home."
 
Muldoone felt the familiar tingling in his whiskers and he knew another
was coming.  The music in the wind danced around him, singing of welcome
and loss, of love and longing, it sang of the promise that love was
eternal, it sang of the pain of separation, and the sorrow of an aching
human heart.
 
The flash of light subsided and then Mully heard the unmistakable sounds
of ferrety feets coming across the planks of the Bridge; the Moonbeam
Express having delivered another ferret whose time on earth had been cut
short.
 
Mully steps forward to greet the new arrival.  "Welcomes to da Wainbow
Bwidge Wosie, I be Mr. Muldoone, officialist Bwidge Gweeter." Muldoone
leans forward offering his nose to the little girl ferret in a friendly
greeting.
 
Little Rosie sat down and looked all around at her new surroundings.
"Wow she exclaims, dis pwace be weally neats!!  I be feeling so gud,
how dat happen?  she wanted to know.  And wook!!  I gots all my fur!!
Taking a tiny velvet paw and rubbing the back of her head, with eyes
big and round, Rosie exclaimed, I nots a baldie anymore!!!
 
"It be da Boss, He fixes ebberting dat be wong wif us whens we gets
here, we be wike we be whens we be younger or afore we gets sick"
Muldoone explained to her.
 
Rosie could feel the ferret known as Muldoone staring at her.  "Okay
buddy she questions him, what you be wooking at?  I knows I be small
but I be fast so you better watch out."
 
"Sworry Mully tells her and blushes deeply, you be berry purrdy, maybe
purrdiest fewet I ebber sees, your new fur be weally nice."
 
"Tank you Mr. Muldoonie, and maybe you asks for a new fur-job" Rosie
tells him with a big grin.
 
For the first time Mully could remember, instead of getting embarrassed
over a comment about his hammy-head-hair he laughed or his name being
mispronounced.  "I dooes hab twouble wif my fur, dat be why I wike to
wears da ball cap, Muldoone tells Rosie, it helps to keep it sorta wike
in a cage."
 
"Mr. Muldoone, Rosie begins, I misses my mom and dad, I not bees wif dem
for wong but dey bees a gud mom and dad.  Sees, me and da odder fewets I
ustta wivs wif, we gets put out in da ting you puts your cars in.  It
bees dark and hots out dere.  I not wike it and I chews a hole and gets
out and dat not a gud ting, I gets wost for a wong time.  Den a
hooman-bean find me and take me to a pwace were wots of dog-dogs bark
and make noise, I not wike dog-dogs.  Dat where my new mom and dad
finds me and takes me home wif em."
 
"What happen Mully asked her, why you comes here?"
 
"I habs sumptin wongs wif me dat make my fur falls out.  Da new mom and
dad take me to da docktor and he say I need oppuratiun.  I not knows what
dat be but mom and dad say okay.  When I habs oppuratiun sumptin not go
wight and I wakes up watter and dat white horsey ting wif da stick coming
outta her head and da big wings, she had me and she be cwying.  She say
for me to go backa asweep and eberyting be okay so I goes back to sweep
and den I wakes up here.  Rosie's eyes filled with tears thinking of her
new mom and dad.  Mr. Muldoone, I miss dem, I not want to weave dem, dey
be nice, I hab wots to eat and I hab tweats, and I hab a nice cwean cage.
Pwease Mr. Muldoone, sends me back, I want to goes back to dis new mom
and dad to wive wif dem."
 
Turning his back to Rosie, Mully couldn't let the new arrival see how
much her story had touched his young tender heart.  Feeling a tiny paw
slipping into his bigger one, he looked down and saw it was the tiny
little ferret girl known as Rosie.  Trying to pull away from her so she
would not see the tears streaming down his chubby cheeks, emotions
threatening to prevent him from speaking, he knew he had to tell her.
 
"Wosie, I am sworry, I cannot sends you back, you hab to stays here wif
me now" Mully told her as gently as he could.
 
"NO, I wants to go back and you sends me back dere wight now Rosie told
him, it not be fair, I wike my new mom and dad, I not want to comes here,
I wants to stay wif dem foreber and ebber" and with that Rosie dissolved
in a tearful little heap on the ground.
 
"Wosie pwease don't cwy, Mully tried his best to tell her, I sends you
back ifin I coulds but I no can dooes dat."
 
Hearing a noise like the rustling of leaves, Muldoone looks up to see
Nanna approaching and she did not look happy.
 
"Muldoone, would you like to tell me what is going on and why this little
one is crying?" Nanna asked him.
 
"Nanna, I twied to tells Wosie dat I no can sends her back to earf, dat
she hab to stay here, but she not want to wisten to me" Muldoone explains
to his boss.
 
Bending low to the ground and speaking in a soft soothing voice, Nanna
began to speak to the sobbing little girl ferret.  "Rosie, hi, my name
is Nanna and I am here to help.  Can you talk to me and tell me what is
wrong and maybe stop your crying?" the older wise ferret asked the new
comer.
 
Struggling to get to her feet and using the back of her tiny paws to wipe
away the tears, Rosie looks intently into the kind gentle face of Nanna.
 
"Pwease Mz Nanna, tells him to sends me back, Rosie pleads, pointing in
the direction of Muldoone, I be healffie now, I habs all my fur, and I
wants to go back to da new mom and dad.  Before Nanna could say a word
Rosie begins to list her reasons for wanting to go back and why she
should be allowed to go back.  Mz Nanna, I knows it be a bad ting for me
to gets out of dat pwace where da odder hooman-beans put me but I not
wike it, it be hot and dark and we be awone all da time, no one to pway
wif us or talk to us.  I chews my way out and den I gets wost but if you
wets me go back to my new mom and dad, I not do dat, dey be a gud mom and
dad, dey woves me and I bees in da house wif dem, out of my cage most all
da time, I gets gud food, I habe odder fewet to sweep wif, soft bedding,
da new mom hold me and talk to me and I wike da way her wong hair smell.
Da new mom, she tells me wots of tings, she say to me she want me to be
happy and I be happy wif da new mom and dad.  PWEASE Mz Nanna sends me
back pwease, I not get to be happy for wong 'nuff, I wants to be happy
for a wittle wonger afore I hab to comes here" and once again Rosie
crumpled to the ground crying bitterly.
 
Just then Muldoone looked up to see Mz SunnyFerret approaching.  Somehow
when there was a new arrival having a difficult time, Mz SunnyFerret
always came to take them home with her.  Muldoone had been to Mz
SunnyFerret's bungalow and he himself would have liked to stay there
for a while, it had every single thing a fuzzy could possibly want; her
bungalow was magical.
 
Mz SunnyFerret gently approached the newcomer Rosie and introduced
herself, offering her nose in greeting.  "Rosie" she began I understand
you don't want to be here and you miss your mom and dad."
 
"Yes mam" Rosie told Mz SunnyFerret.  I be happy wif my new mom and dad,
firstest time I bees happy in a wong time and I not hab 'nuff time tooes
bees happy wif dem" she trailed off.
 
"Wee-one in time you will understand as will your humans, as will all
humans.  The humans understand the Great Promise as given by the Creator
but they don't understand it as we do.  To the humans when the life of a
fuzzy has come to an end they see it as final but we know different.  The
Creator would never close a door and lock it and just as He would never
lock that door, He will leave a window open as well.  The Creator gave us
the wonderful gift of the Rainbow Bridge joining our world to theirs and
even though this means our days in the sun on earth is over it gives us a
way to go back and peek in on our humans.  And when the time comes for
our humans to cross they will cross the Rainbow Bridge and at that time
we are reunited with our families.  Rosie, she continued you have left
the scent of your love in the hearts of your humans just as you tucked
the scent of your new mom and dad deep in your heart.  Just as the
Creator promised us love is eternal your familee will never forget you
and you will never forget them.  Time has no meaning for us here wee-one,
think of the Rainbow Bridge as a place of rest.  When we arrive here
first of all we are renewed in body and spirit, the old are young again
the ill are restored to health.  Here we walk under the sun, we eat good
food, we have endless days of play, and we wait on that which we love the
most; our familiees, we wait for that wonderful day when our humans will
come and they gently take us in their arms and carry us away to never be
separate from them ever again."
 
"Come with me wee-one SunnyFerret tells Rosie and she holds out her arms
to her come and let me take you home to rest and when you are ready, you
broken little heart will begin to mend."
 
Muldoone looked over at Nanna and she had tears streaming down her
face and as soon as Mz SunnyFerret was out of sight with Rosie, Nanna
dissolved into great wracking sobs.  Mully was not sure what to do but
his heart told him to offer comfort to the older ferret.  Gently going
to her and softly embracing her, she laid her soft head on his strong
shoulder and he held her as she wept.
 
"It is so unfair sobbed Nanna, just as Rosie found a familee, she was
snatched away.  I don't understand, why does the Creator do things like
this?"
 
Muldoone was at a total loss for words, usually it was he asking the
questions, why did things happen as they did and it was Nanna who tried
her best to help him to understand.  On this day there would be no
answers, no easy explanations.  To Muldoone, it was just not fair.
 
~~Muldoone~~
Caring for your ferrets at the Rainbow Bridge.
[Posted in FML issue 4929]