(Our scene opens with Switch the Kit and Sabrina the Bat-Biter curled
up nose to paws, paws to nose in their hammie.  It is late at night.  The
light from the half moon shines through the window and silvers every
surface in the ferret room.)
 
Switch: "Aunt Sabrina?, are you awake?"
 
Sabrina: (Not opening her tired eyes) "Yes, child."
 
Switch: "The dog whispered something to me today..."
 
Sabrina: "And?"
 
Switch: "And it scared me."
 
Sabrina: "You know she likes to scare you. What did she say?"
 
Switch: "She...well, she whispered something to me about the Rainbow
Bridge."
 
Sabrina: "Ahh...the Rainbow Bridge..."
 
Switch: "She was just trying to scare me right?  She said you were old
and you were going to die and leave me, and cross the Bridge."
 
Sabrina: "Someday I will die, child.  It's the nature of things.  If we
didn't die it wouldn't mean anything that we had lived, our lives would
have no significance."
 
Switch: (Trying not to cry) "But I love you!  Don't leave me!  I hate it
when you get all deep on me and give me that Zen stuff."
 
Sabrina: (Snuggling more deeply into Switch's side)  "It's only for a
little while. When you cross the Bridge I'll be waiting for you, just
as my Sister-In-Fur, Maya the Moose is waiting for me."
 
Switch: "Will there be ferretone pools and fruit bars?"
 
Sabrina: "Nobody knows.  Certainly not the dog.  Do you think you need a
ferretone pool and a fruit bar to be happy?  You don't have those things
now, and we're happy now, here in this hammie."
 
Switch: "Will the hoomans come, and the dog, and the fish, too?"
 
Sabrina: " I believe we all continue, but I don't know if we remain
ferrets and hoomans and dogs and fish.  Maybe.  Maybe not."
 
(Long pause....)
 
Switch: " I don't want the dog to come.  And I don't want there to be
vacuum cleaners, either."
 
Sabrina: "Or fleas."
 
Switch: (Giggling now) "Or toe-nail clippers."
 
Sabrina: (Giggling, too) "Or vets."
 
(The moon shines on, and the ladies drift to sleep.)
 
Alexandra in Massachusetts
(Apologies to the vets.)
[Posted in FML issue 3905]