Early morning at the Bridge and Muldoone was still snoozing in his hammy. He and the guys had pulled off another suprise and for the most part a successful flannel nightgown raid on the girls the night before. It had been a long dry spell and they were all itching to get their paws on some nice flannel and knowing all the girls slept in flannel nightgowns, the guys knew exactly where to go to get what they wanted. Now if they could just keep Nanna from finding out about it, no doubt she would be calling a meeting and ordering all the nightgowns returned. That Nanna, she was forever spoiling the fun of Mully and his buddies. Nanna went storming into Muldoone's hut not bothering to knock. She grabbed the side of his hammy and gave it a hard YANK and Mully found himself flat on the floor landing with a resounding THUD. Upon opening his eyes, he saw no ne other than his boss Nanna standing over him staring her best glare stare. "Sworry Nanna, I twies to tells em we not need dat many nightiegowns, we takes em all back, I pwomise" Muldoone stammered to his boss. "Muldoone what are you talking about, I am not here about any nightgowns but if I find you and your friends were on another nightgown raid you are going to be in big trouble, you promised me the last time there would be NO MORE flannel nightgown raids. What I am here about is the greeting you have due this morning and you should have already been up and on your way to the Bridge. Get up and get yourself moving young man, time is wasting" Nanna told him. Staggering off to his make-self-ready area and coming back for Nanna's inspection, the older ferret stood there with her mouth hanging open. Only rarely since Muldoone arrived at the Bridge had he ever known Nanna to be speechless but this was one of those times. "MULDOONE, in the name of Foamy Fries what have you done to your fur?" Nanna screeched at him. Standing before Nanna for her inspection which he rarely ever had to do anymore, but this morning she was giving his hammy-head-hair a very close going over. Reaching out with a couple of toes to feel Muldoone's fur, Nanna didn't know what to think; her toes felt both gookie and slickie. Sniffing her toes after touching his fur, his boss crinckled up her nose as the odor was most unplesant. Mully was standing before Nanna looking quite pleased with himself, he didn't understand what all the fuss was about. The Boss was taking too much time about fixing his hammy-head-hair problems so Muldoone decided to fix it himself. After discussing it with his buddies, they all came up with the same idea ; go visit Sabrina, Switch, and Lily and get some axle grease from their yellow and green 1949 John Deere Tractor. The girls weren't all that friendly about sharing their tractor grease but with some persuasion they finally let him have a pawful to use on his hammy-head-hair. He had more than enough to schmooze down his fur and even enough left over to be stashed for future mornings when he needed it. "Muldoone, you cannot go to the Bridge to greet a new arrival looking like THAT" Nanna scolded him. "You look like you took a swan dive into a pool of oil." "But Nanna, wook at it, it hold my hairs down, no more hammy-head-hair, I not eben be needin my ballcap to cobers it up" Muldoone told his boss. Drawing a long breath, arms crossed over her chest, eyes narrowed, and tapping one foot on the ground, "Muldoone I know this will be the first time I ha ve ever told you this but I am ordering you to put on your ballcap and wear it this morning when you greet the new comer due to arrive, maybe they have never seen anything like you, you might scare em. You put on your cap and wear it to the Bridge and as soon as you finish with the greeting you are to go and get all that gunk washed out of your fur. I will talk to the Boss myself about your hammy-head-hair and try to get Him to hurry up the process of getting it fixed." All the way to the Bridge Nanna was heard grumbling to herself, "Never seen anything like it, what was he thinking, he doesn't think, that is the problem, hammy-head-hair problems, and what is the Boss waiting on, fix your cap Muldoone, it is sliding off." Arriving at the Bridge and hearing the sweet sad Ferret Promise Song begin to swell on the breeze offering comfort to a grieving heart back on earth and waiting to give a warm loving embrace to the one who came. It sang of happier times, days of laughter and playtime, but it also sang of days with a beloved fuzzy, one who was slowing with disease, days that whispered to an aching heart, "It might not be much longer." At the moment each ferret passed, the Creator gently took them in His thundering velvet right hand and whispered to their hearts "I knew you before you were ever a ferret, I knew you while you were on earth, and you have returned to Me, rest now wee-one, you are home, come and start your new journey that begins at the Bridge." The lights danced, reflecting the brilliant hues of the rainbow. The light flashed brightly once more and then the sound of ferrety feets could be heard making their way across the time-worn boards that made up the Rainbow Bridge, connecting that other world to this one; the world which held fuzzies of every size shape and color, fuzzies who waited for the day they would be reunited with the one on earth they loved so completely. The flash of light subsided and then Mully heard the unmistakable sounds of ferrety feets coming across the time-worn planks of the Bridge; the Moonbeam Molly Express having delivered another ferret whose time on earth had been cut short. Mully stepped forward to greet the new arrival. "Welcomes to da Wainbow Bwid ge Spatz, I be Mr. Muldoone, officialist Bwidge Gweeter." Muldoone leaned forward offering his nose to the male ferret in a friendly greeting. Gesturing in the direction of his supervisor, "Dis be Nanna" Mully told the newcomer. The new arrival sat down and looked all around surveying his new surroundings; eyes big and round, he seemed a bit confused at where he was. "Dis be da Wa inbow Bwidge?" he asked. "Yes" Mully told him, "dis be da Wainbow Bwidge. Dids you not knos you be comin here kid?" Muldoone asked him. "I not be feelin so gud but not knos I be comin here dis soon." Stepping forward and offering a friendly nose greeting to the new arrival Spatz, "Welcome to the Rainbow Bridge Spatz, I am Nanna. Your mom told us all about you and she is very sad that you had to leave her but she understands, she is missing you very much but she understood it was your choice to go." "Miss Nanna, I be missin my mom a wot" Spatz told Nanna. "Spatz, we all miss our familees a great deal when we come here. For some it is only after they arrive here at the Bridge they are finally without a sick body or at last they are free from pain, others come here and they are missing their cagemates terribly; most every ferret that arrives here arrives with an aching heart. But, you are here now and you will wait for that wonderful day when your mom comes for you and then you will be reunited" Nanna explained to him. "Zactlee how long dat be Miss Nanna?" Spatz wanted to know. "Spatz, I am sorry, I don't have any way of knowing that, but we all wait for that wonderful day to come when we will see our loved ones running through the meadow on their way to meet us and on that day we cross the Bridge together to never be separate from one another again. It is the day promised to us by the Creator, it is what makes the waiting possible for us" Nanna told him. "Spatz, I teaches you how to visit yur mom in her dweams, and you can sends her whiskery kisses. She will tink she be dweamin but it be you sneaks back to earff to visit and make sure yur mom be ok. I shows you how." Comes wiff me Spatz, I shows you all da stuff we gots here at da Bwidge." As the two ferrets were walking down the path, Spatz stopped and was sniffing the air and then asked Muldoone, "What be dat smell?" ~~Muldoone~~ Caring for your ferrets at the Rainbow Bridge. [Posted in FML issue 5075]