It was a beautiful summer afternoon at de Bridge. SaraFerret was drifting along in a raft in de lily pond as it was her day off. Just peaceful and quiet with the gentlest of breezes blowing her along. Then out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Dexter, the little boy courier, heading for her. (Oh-oh). Zip, he miscalculated his flight and instead of landing beside her, landed on top of her, flippin over de raft, dumping her into de lily pond. Well, de water was just barely fuzzie-leg deep, so she just got out of de water and tried to wring herself dry. Dexter handed her de note. She read de note which said a special ferret was getting ready to cross. Hey Dexter, go and get Derby, Nestlee, and Tuffy and bring dem to de entrance as dere sister is coming. So off he went one way and off SaraFerret went towards de entrance. So dere I am at de Bridge entrance (wringing wet). Then I spotted her, a tiny hooded sable fuzzy with a heavy backpack running across de bridge. Wowsie! can dat girl run. (We will have to enter her in de sprinters class). She looks at me and seems rather puzzled. Who are you, she said. I introduced myself to her, I am SaraFerret and I am de bridgegreeter. Welcome to de Rainbow Bridge. Well dis little fuzzy just looked at me and said, Hmm, you don't look much like a bridgegreeter; in fact you look funny, and you are all wet; how come you are all wet. Mommy said I would be met by a fuzzy, but you look like a big wet rat. Oh yeah, my name is Sprout and I belong to Mommy Karen. And I really don't know why I am here. One minute I was asleep by Gypsy and next minute I was here. Dat's why I was running. Kinda scared me. (All in one breath) After all dat, Sprout just wilted a bit and sat down. Well Sprout, I explained. I am wet because someone dumped me into de lily pond by accident. I admit I isn't de prettiest fuzzy at de bridge, but what you sees is whats you gets. Sprout just looked at me, and then said, Oh SaraFerret, I didn't mean anything bad; but it was kinda funny to be met by a wet fuzzy. We both fell down laughing at dat. Sprout, I noticed dat you are carrying a heavy backpack. (Unlike humans, ferrets have secret backpacks and can take anything they can stuff in it on their bridge journey). She looked a me with suspicion, Why do you ask; do I have to give everything to you? Don't you have things? Oh, Sprout, I replied, I am just like any fuzzy, I am just nosey. Ok, then she said. and unaipped it and took out....Treats, 2 Derby eggs and 1 pink fleece blanket with magical unicorns on it. Wowsie! A very heavy load for a tiny hooded sable. Den, Dexter came flying up with the all-girl gang: Derby, Tuffy, and Nestlee. Suddenly Sprout knew dat she was surrounded again by her friends. What joy! A great reunion. Bounces, Leaps, Wardancing! Hide-and-go-seek behind imaginary trees. Together dey ran and ran down de garden path until we all stopped by de misting pond. We all sat down and swished de clear blue water and all of a sudden dey could see Mommy Karen. She was crying and had big tears running down her cheeks. By her side was her newest fuzzies. Sprout pointed dem out to de others--Hey girls I call dem de Poofers cuz dey poofs a lots but I didn't gets to play with dem cuz dey was big fuzzies. Mommy was holding de two newest fuzzies but she was still sad over de missing Sprout. So all a sudden, de all-girl gang started throwing hugs and kisses and wrapping dem with love and laid dem on a nearby shooting star which was headed to de place where Mommy lived. They made a promise that one day they would visit her and she would know they had been there by their musky smell or a scratchy whiskery feel on her cheek. Then with another swish the vision was gone. A bit of sadness perhaps. But at least dey had each other and they knew dat one day in de long distant future Mommy would cross de bridge and they would run together forever. The all-girl gang headed on down the garden path toward their cottage with Sprout chattering all about Mommy and filling dem in on what had happened since de others had been on earth. A Welcome to the Bridge Sprout party was going on. I was invited, but fuzzies were crossing de bridge, so I had to leave and head back to de entrance. So ended another greeting at de bridge. Loveys and hugsSaraFerret, bridgegreeter [Posted in FML 5729]