Hi, all. Things have been very busy here. My hoomin has been very busy, too. Her seventeen year old brother came for a visit, stayed for a week. Do you think that either of us was allowed anywhere *near* the computer during all that time? Heck, no! But we learned sooo much more about Japanese anime cartoons than we ever needed or wanted to. So let's get to work. Benita asked me to check up on her little Miss Kate, who has been here for a while. Well, Miss Kate is thriving! She lives in a bungalo woven of the dry, sweet smelling long grass very near the red sandstone canyon full of millions upon millions of fresh, white rolls of toilet paper to shred. Her sisters Sassy and Moxie don't actually live with her, they live a good distance away in the field full of sofas. They are currently sharing a very boxy blue sofa with curved arms that they have torn most of the stuffing out of. it's just starting to smell right, they report. In other words, it smells like them. The three do get together pretty often with the whole Benita Gang (at this point not just a Business, but an entire *pack* of weasels)to tear and frolic in the rolls of toilet paper. When the wind is just right, white streamers of torn paper rise up on thermals, and are lifted hundreds of feet into the air. Up, up and away! They pounce, claw, roll, shred and bite until their mouths are bone dry from chewing on all of that paper. Then it's time for...THE FRUIT BAR! Nothing, but NOTHING cleans out the Fruit Bar faster than the Benita Gang. Pineapple chunks, apple slices, fresh, chewy rasins, plump, cold, crinkly stewed prunes, wet little watermelon chunks, soft, downy apricot halves...all devoured in minutes! I visited Miss Kate in her grass bungalo today and she reports that she is very happy, and is especially enjoying the Dryer Vent Hose Mountain. She zips around in the hoses for hours every day until she is tired, then she lies down in the quiet and the darkness of the hoses and takes a nap. She looks forward to showing her Mommy, Benita, what dryer vent hoses are really for. Laundry doesn't begin to enter the picture, poor hoomin! Miss Kate will set her straight some day, a long time from now. Rebecca asked me to check up on her friends Bandit (who is now wearing a splendid coat of fur) and Misty, both of whom have been here for a while. Well, Misty says that it is a waste, a wearing away of the spirit to blame the vet for what happened in the World of the Living. What is happening on this side of the Bridge is so much more significant! There are wings! There is flight! Misty and Bandit learned to fly together, and they still do a lot of traveling, just for the sheer pleasure of seeing the land move beneath them far, far below. They like to see their shadows race across the grass and the wildflowers! Whatever disappointments occured in the World of the Living simply cannot compare to this simple pleasure. Bandit says that he did indeed hear his Mommy Rebecca tell him about the Bridge, as she held his tired body in her hands. It was with joy...pure joy that he first felt the heat of the sun warmed wooden planks of the Bridge beneath his toe pads. Then he held his face up to the sun, and closed his eyes. Such a simple thing to do, but it felt so good, it felt so good to be healthy and vital once more! And to know that he was in his forever Forever Home! Then, of course, there was the racous greeting of the Merry Mayhem Business, his Brothers and Sisters in Fur who stood with me to welcome him. The nuzzling, the ear-washing, the dooking, bouncing, popping, and war-dancing! Some day, a long time from now, they will stand with me, and thank Rebecca for all the love she gave them. A little earth bound ferret, Britney, wanted me to check up on her sister in fur, Angel. Britney was right, there was a pretty wild party among the Ferret_R_Gang when Angel crossed the Bridge. The Wild Black Footed Ferrets crashed the party, rolling in a cool bottle of stout with their noses. It foamed a lot when it was opened, but everybody (including Angel) (O.K. and me, too) drank from the puddle, and the party didn't end until dawn flung an orange banner of light across the horizon. It is true, her hoomins did not truly realize the extent to which Angel was not always an angel...but let's face it, sometimes hoomins operate on a need to know basis. I mean, they don't really *need* to know where we stash their stuff, now do they, or they wouldn't have left it lying about in the first place. Am I right, or am I right? (wink!) Sandee [Posted in FML issue 4562]