Dear Ferret Folks-
 
I was taking a nap, and my husband was going in and out of the house.
The ferrets were loose.
 
This is a recipe for disaster.
 
To make a long story short, at the end of my several hour long nap, Ping
was accounted for, but Puma could not be accounted for INSIDE the house.
That left outside.  Well, it was dark by then, and cold.  We had gusts of
wind up to forty miles an hour.  I was imagining the neighbours cats, the
hunting cats.  The ones who caught squirrels.  I was imagining dogs, all
manner of dogs.  I was imagining cars in the road outside of our house.
I was imagining Puma, lost somewhere in the darkness...squatting down low
to the ground to keep warm....eyes slitted against the wind, as yellow
leaves blew across her back.
 
I imagined a life without Puma.
 
My husband put his huge workboots on, and went outside with a small
orange squeakie (the really loud one) that looks like a pig.  He followed
the footprint of the house, moving along the foundation, the way a ferret
does.  The cellar door was open.  We had it open to dry it out after the
TWO WEEKS of rain we have just had here in New England.  He went inside,
squeaking in the darkness.  A filthy ferret followed him so closely that
she bumped into the back of his boots.  She was collected, and returned
to an anxious Ping, who groomed her for a long time.
 
Now, you tell me.  In your minds eye, stand in the cellar doorway.  Turn
so that you are facing outside, into the lower driveway.  Open your eyes,
what do you see, ten feet away in the darkness?
 
A green and yellow John Deere tractor (the 1020 with the bucket.)
 
Guess whose fur REEKS of diesel?
 
My husband maintains she was hiding in the cellar the whole time.
 
I know better.
 
Alexandra in MA
[Posted in FML issue 5033]