"So this is what the wilderness looks like," One of the raccoons
exclaimed, "Come'on guys, we are home...No more city-life for us gentlemen!"
 So the raccoons took off into the trees, which happened to be plentiful in
this place.  The sun was beginning to rise, and the girls were all huddled up
on the dashboard of the truck with their heads together.
    "Nice going, Rosie," Wiggles scolded.
    "Hey, no problem, we just find a payphone and call Mom and Dad to come
pick us up!" Rosie replied.
    "Yeah, right, a payphone in the middle of the forest!" Maxie added.
    "I think I'm hungry," Sammi interjected.
    "Me too," Wiggles said, "We haven't eaten in a while.  Where is the
crinkle sack?  There is plenty of food in there."
    "WAS plenty of food in there," Rosie answered, looking over the spilled
contents of the crinkle sack all over the cab of the truck.  The food and
raisins were scattered everywhere, the water had spilled.  Wiggles found her
blanket and doll and put them back in the crinkle sack.  Maxie grabbed one
of Dad's lighters from the floor and tossed it into the sack also.  Sammi
found a Now or Later candy, which she thought to herself that she could
"have some now, and have some later."
    "Well, we have no food or water," Wiggles declared, hands on hips.
    "Let's go," Rosie said, and hopped out of the window of the truck onto
the ground.  Sammi and Maxie followed.  Wiggles was hesitant.
    "We're gonna get in big trouble," Wiggles said, and slinked down the
side of the truck, to follow her sisters, who were now walking in a little
line of ferrets with their little butts shaking and their backs hunched up in
the air like ferrets will do, into the forest.
    Pine trees and ferns were densely packed into the landscape, and the
terrain was rocky and filled with steep slopes.  The girls had never seen
anything like this, only Wiggles had read about the forest in books and
Sammi had seen one on T.V.  with Dad.  It was about midday when the girls
came upon a beautiful, greenish-blue flowing river in the middle of a
pleasant pasture of grasses.
   "I'm still hungry," Sammi pronounced, lapping up the succulent water from
the river.
   "Me too," Maxie added, slurping away.
   "What the heck is that?" Rosie said, eyes fixed on a spot in the river.
   "Looks like a critter," Wiggles said, water dripping from her chin, which
she quickly wiped off with her paws, like a little lady.
   "Well, whatever it is, it's headed this way," Maxie said.
   "Woah," Sammi declared, eyes filled with wonder at this new creature.
   The girls watched fearlessly as the furbound river mammal swam over to
the bank of the river where the girls were, and slowly emerged from the
water onto the land.
   "It's a big ferret!" Sammi yelled, eyes opened wide.
   "Wow," Maxie said, "that's one, huge fuzzy."
   "Hi, my name is Otter," the creature pronounced, with it's big, round
eyes full of light and it's whiskers drooped to the ground, dripping with
water...
 
    (to be continued...)
[Posted in FML issue 1652]