The story was handed to Ela Heyn who wrote: "......great big vacuum cleaner! Snowflake couldn't believe her eyes ... she had never seen a vacuum cleaner that huge before! "It is a good thing that ferrets are brave and adventurous, while kitty cats are wimpy and don't like vacuum cleaners! Because da very next ting dat happened was dat da VERY BRAVE Lil Bear popped out and started dat vacuum cleaner up! Voom voom went da vacuum cleaner, and zoom zoom went da kitties into da forest. "Lil Bear (who is VERY BRAVE) vacuumed da whole forest floor for good measure, and den he turned da vacuum cleaner off. He gave two wiggles of his nose, and da vacuum cleaner turned back into da giant raisin tree! "Da beautiful girl Snowflake ferret looked at Lil Bear and said, "You are my hero, Lil Bear!" He looked deep into her beautiful eyes, and he noticed how beautiful she was, and how she delicately smelled of raisin juice. "Den Snowflake opened her beautiful mouth and said, "Lil Bear, would you please....." And the story was passed to Wolfy: ".... help me eat all these raisons and cache them?" "Snowflake and Lil' Bear partook of the juicy, sweet raisons from the tree. After they were full and quite tipsy (there were a few fermented raisons), they sang a little Karoake. Lil' Bear finished up their singing session with a swinging, swanky rendition of Tom Jones' "It's Easy to Be Loved By Anyone" (minus the crotch bulge). Snowflake was very impressed with the sexy serenade. It was just so paw-snapping fun! "Sobered up, Snowflake then remembered how her mother warned her about the evil woman in the woods. She sat and told the story to Lil' Bear as he stood furrowing his brow trying to figure out where to hide all the wonderful raisons. He then wondered what awful things this woman could do to ferrets. Maybe she gave baths with sudsy shampoos and perfumes, he pondered. Maybe she moved private ferret treasures from hidey-holes, or stopped projects such as massive digs. Worse yet, maybe she swabbed ears or stole ferret poopies compulsively. But Snowflake imagined it would be much worse. She was truly scared. "They bottle brushed their tails as they brainstormed of what to do next. They needed to figure it out before those kitties came back anyway. But then before they could leave they head a noise ... And passed to Francine Prager: "While the noise was different than the purring the kitties made, it was still very frightening. What were they doing in this dark foreboding forest, Snowflake wondered. As she passed her thoughts along to Lil Bear, suddenly, into the clearing, came the makers of the new noise..... "Dogs....pure white, just like Snowflake herself. Snowflake was so happy to see the white creatures she didn't even notice the yellow slits of their eyes. But Lil Bear, who was not white, did notice their eyes. "Run Snowflake" cried Lil Bear "but first stuff your mouth and paws with raisins so we will have the energy to escape". But Snowflake saw no reason to run...after all, the dogs were white, just like her...... "You must be thirsty after eating all of those raisins," growled one of the dogs..."and sticky too. I can show you where there is a lovely brown pool of a liquid that stinks......er....smells like oil." "Ferretone!", cried Snowflake and Lil Bear in unison...."Yes," said their new friend with the yellow eyes. "Our mistress tends to this pool very carefully. She keeps it pure and clean and picks the leaves out of it. Come with me.....she would love to meat.....er....meet you." To be continued..... [Posted in FML issue 4860]