[2-part post, combined here] My Name is FERRET The silvery, low-slung, velvet-furred creature glided across the lush grass on dainty feet that made barely a whisper of sound as they passed through it. Its shiny, satin like nose twitching nervously as it cautiously sniffed the air, nostrils flaring, its excitement apparent, as though it found the world a precious plethora of enticing smells. The tiny creature, though once a tame and much-loved pet, now lived its life purely by its wits. A once pampered and catered to creature, now found itself becoming almost feral in its search for survival in an unfriendly and unwelcoming world. And because of some harsh and wicked lessons learned not too long ago, it now approached the house cautiously, ears erect and on alert, ever ready to flee in a moment's notice. The tiny animal vaguely remembered back to the time of plenty and hands that were once friendly. But all it had now in its dainty head were just the memories of what once was, but was no more. The most recent memories were painful rags of thoughts mostly woven of hunger and fear. It knew that it was once a happy creature willing to dance the dook of joy for its loving owners, but now it no longer remembered how to dance at all. For the creature of joy had slowly become a frightened creature of the night. It now slid slowly around the parameters of the human world, taking what food it found discarded there. Its rushed and hurried life lived frightfully as it dodged unfriendly, raging dogs and loud, roaring cars. On occasion it would stop and lift its tiny head for a moment, stopping to quietly listen to the twinkling, crystal sounds of laughter from a small child. And then with weary sadness it would remember when it too, had once had a child that laughed just that way, joyful and full of glee. But as quick as the wishful thought of wanting to be close to the child occurred, it would quickly vanish as the waif-like creature sadly thought of the human feet that had kicked out at it in anger and punishment. It paused in its starving pursuit of food to remember the cruel taunts of the children that had just yesterday slung jagged chunks of rocks at its tiny head, rocks tossed with frightening cries of "kill the rodent". Now it did not know all things human or otherwise, but it knew that it was indeed not a rodent, for it still remember proudly that its owners had said that it was a FERRET, and they said the words with such pride and respect that it knew the name had to be a good thing indeed. No, the melodious laughter of a child was but a teasing reminder of what once was and back to a time when joy was an every day thing. The tiny ferret paused in its search for a moment, flopping down upon it dainty paws, as a almost silent sigh escaped, closing its eyes for just a second, its thoughts, to rest and remember a for just a moment longer. By Kendra B. Lausman (c) 01/04/2009 My Name is FERRET part 2 Fitfully, the tiny ferret slumbered as her dreams took her back to that fateful day when the big, lumbering trucks rolled noisily into the yard. That day when big, sweaty, strange men came into their home and began to load all of her humans' belongings in the gaping hole at the back of the truck. She remembered hiding under the dresser and shivering in fear as her human pulled her from underneath. With soft hands and soothing voice that woman of her's cooed to her with tears in her eyes that began to slowly roll down her face. Dancer (yes, now she remembered, that was her name, way back then) zipped out her tongue to wash the tears from her Lovey's face. Her female human's name was Lovey, because her male human was called Sweetie and her child was Princess. She clearly remembered her humans using these names for each other, with love in their voices. Her Lovey petting and cooed with sadness in their voices and Dancer could not understand the words she said, but she knew that it sounded painful and wrong. For her Lovey kissed her tiny head and so did her Princess, then Princess ran from the room crying so hard her little body shook. And then Lovey gently placed her into a carrier that contained her favorite hammy and toys. She spoke so softly that Dancer had to strain to hear what was said, but the words even after she heard them, made no sense at all. She heard stock market, job loss, moving and no pets allowed, all words that made no sense at all to her young ears. Then she heard even more confusing words; Craig's List, new owners and free to a good home. Again, the words made no sense at all, but her beloved human spoke them with the sound of hope in her voice and a tinge of pain hidden softly in those same words. Tiny Dancer reached out her furry, little paw trying to both touch her and at the same time to comfort her. For she dearly loved her humans and needed them to smile at her once more, she wanted them to not cry words of pain, she wanted them to not mutter words that she could not understand. And then her Lovey gently placed her in her pretty, pink carrier and then handed it to a strange man that smelled like the old socks that she sometimes hid underneath, in their clothes hamper. He wore that same old sock smell that always before, had made her Lovey say yuck, as she laughingly held her nose. The man was hairy and smelly and did not seem to smile at all.. Dancer felt a cold chill run down her back, one that made her shiver uncontrollably deep within. This human did not seem friendly or kind and Dancer cried out in fear for her humans, her humans that stood just inside the door, all three now cried openly, as the smelly man and Dancer went quickly through it. Dancer threw herself at the cage bars, all thoughts of self respect and dignity now gone, for she did not want to go with this non-smiling, smelly man. She began franticly gnawing on the bars, clawing and squealing in fear and frustration. She cried and clawed and bit until she could do it no more. And then she fell into an exhausted heap upon her hammy and slept the drugged "dead ferret" sleep. When Dancer awoke she found herself stuffed into a tiny cage, in a dirty room with only the light of the moon to light the tiny, stale room. Her food bowl held some huge pieces of old dog food that smelled as though it had gone bad long ago. This was not her huge cage in her nice room, nor her fancy food that momma ordered just for her. She knew the man took the cage, for she saw it loaded in his truck, but no where did she see it. This whole situation had to be nothing but a little ferret's horrific nightmare. And she just knew that when the new day began she would awaken from this strange nightmare and everything would be all grand, once again. But alas, Dancer soon woke to the same sad dungeon-like room with only herself and the flies for company. The minutes rolled into hours and Dancer found that she barely had room to turn around in. So she sadly lay upon the soiled and smelly clothe laying over the broken and bare wire floor and sighed in despair. She lay silent and still and thought painful thoughts of yesterday. Thinking back to a time when her humans were happy and they all played an exciting game of weasel tag with her. Dancer laid still and puzzled over her fate, wondering why she was here and why her humans were so sad? She knew that she always used her litter box, she never bit her humans or made too terribly bad of a mess. What had she done for her humans to send her here, here to such an awful place? Dancer did not know what she could have done that would have made her live here with the smelly man but she had a plan, and when he came, she planned to run away. And later that night he came stumbling into the room and roughly dragged her by her scruff from her nasty, flesh tearing cage. Once he had her out, he held her into the air and began to poke and prod at her tiny body with his nasty, dirty unclipped nails. As he held her close to his face inspecting her with his half closed eyes, she smelled an awful smell, one worse than any that she had ever smelled before. She began to gag and began to struggle harder than before to be released. The man tightened his huge, callused hands and pulled her skin so tightly that it felt as if it might tear into. Pulling it so tight that she felt that could not breathe and in desperate fear she lashed out and bit him with all her might. He shouted and then slung her tiny body clean across the room. Dancer hit the wall, slid down it and laid there quivering and crying in pain and fear. The man stumbled back to his overstuffed and ragged chair, picked up his beer bottle and said, "the little A$$ bit me, well I'll show her who's boss, that you bet I will". Dancer laid there a long while trembling and trying weakly to breath through the pain. She laid there fearing the awful man would come over and hurt her even more. But she could not move and just laid there whimpering. She closed her eyes and prayed for just enough strength to crawl away, to crawl to somewhere dark and safe. She began the slow and painful crawl across the cracked and torn floor. She crawled slowly moving only a few inches at a time, stopping, resting and then starting to crawl again. She cast a worried eye at the man in the chair, but the nasty man paid her no mind. He just continued to mutter and curse and drink his beer. When brave little Dancer finally reached the door she found that it was hanging slightly open. For like all things she had seen in this house it was worn and in total disarray and hung loosely from broken and rusty hinges. She squeezed her lithe body out the opening and into the ebony black of a dark and scary night. Dancer quivered in fear and yet she knew her salvation had to be ahead because hell surely was behind her. So little Dancer continued crawling until she find the overgrown and tangled bushes that surrounded the dilapidated house. She rested for a while trying hard not to breath too deep. And when she rested long enough that her pain was only a throbbing nuisance she moved forward again, fading quickly into the inky night. Then her only thoughts were those of finding her humans and returning to her life from before. But it has been a long, long time now, since Dancer left the smelly man's home. And sadly no longer does Dancer search for her humans or her beautiful home. In fact she has almost forgotten that life from before and how good it felt to be loved and to belong. She has almost forgotten her humans and she figures that they most likely have forgotten her. Now Dancer just searches for food, for shelter from the pending storms and a safe place to hide from the world when things get too big and scary. And sometimes on a sunny, crisply clear day, she might hear a certain sound that strikes a hidden memory burned deep within. And that memory will cause her to stop and smile that crooked, little, mischievous ferret smile and she will fondly remember what once was and will never be again. And to anyone that bothered to look real close they just might see beyond the ragged fur of that lost, little waif and see her brilliant smile as she nods her head in that endearing way that she has. Then if you listened real close you just might hear the magically sound of her almost silent dook and know that she has just remembered something good from way back when she used to be more than just a ferret, back to when she used to be Dancer, the one chosen to live in the world of humans and share their blessed love. Thinking to way back when, when she used to be more than just a ferret, back to a time when she loved and was loved in return. By Kendra B. Lausman (c) 01/04/2009 [Posted in FML 6205]