[Patrick H.] Dear Patrick, This has been awhile in coming and it's not because you nor Johnny Ringo was forgotten, but that the Greeter have had all manner of upsets come into their lives and we have been working on trying to set things right. Over the past two days I have done everything I can to catch up with all of the scrolls that have piled up upon the many desks I have had to move into my cottage to be able to take care of the overflow of greetings. One fuzzit trying to do the work of three is quite a stretch I say this because while I can greet, I am not nearly as well rounded in my greeting as SaraFerret and 421 are. I miss them terribly and know that many other both here and on the FML do as well. In April I was attending a hooman symposium. There were many great speakers who talked about how we effect hoomins, and how they effect our lives. We addressed the subject of the forever home. How when we are chosen for one, we are often times and hopefully looked upon as children who are focally (as in furry verses non furry) which many fuzzits dooked in agreement. In being looked upon as the perpetual two year old we really are helps us become special to our hoomin parents. The speaker then talked about that coming into a home like this was the best gift we could, as a ferret, receive, and how best we could maximize our cute factor in order to continue endearing ourselves ever further into a hoomins heart. For instance, we do not steal things, because stealing is wrong, but instead we borrow, we liberate, we abscond, but we never take anything permanently. The reason for that? We because we need to keep you on your toes, it's your health we are interested in, and by hiding things, or perhaps making a small mess here and there, we are allowing you to receive the exercise we know that is important to your health. Another thing that was spoken of was in maximizing our cute factor; i.e. working on louder dooking voices, because dooking is an expression of over all joy and exuberance we must share with everyone around us, most especially our parents. Gaining greater skill at war dancing - they had a huge room set up for this purpose and as we were all doing our best to bounce off the walls, the preset furniture & toys, but mostly each other, I saw Johnny Ringo. He was quite a dashing dancer if I do say so myself, and wondered, when had he arrived? How had I missed him? I waited until we moved on to one of the more quieter tasks of the symposium to talk with him, and so, during "Maximizing Your Cuteness Factor", we sat and talked. He told me he didn't want to make a fuss of things, that sometimes it's best to let time pass before a greeting is done. Not every hoomin is ready for a greeting, let alone ready to begin the healing process, so he asked that I wait, and when a few months had gone by, he would come to me and tell me he was ready. Tonight he came to my door, a nice bottle of Ferretone in hand, and the two of us sat outside on the porch and watched as twilight gave way to darkness. He made sure that I had my ledger up to date with the names of your loved ones - Baby, Bandit & sassy who wrote you a poem, Junior, Swiper - a dashing fert if ever there was one, Baby Boo, tiny Gabby - who despite his small size, has a BIG heart, Max - that dark handsome fellow of the 10 year old club, Baby, Fuzzbutt, and Olive who wrote to you at the beginning of the year, and of course Ringo himself. He talked about what a good dad you are, we never say were, because that would imply you stopped being as such. he said you were gentle, kind, warm and very loving, and that if he had the chance to do it all over again, he would come and be your's time and time again. It's funny, but because we live such short lives, we try, when given the chance to return to experience your world, to be part of your life and heart again. It's why sometimes you will have a fuzzit, and think ... how odd, he/she acts "just" like <fill in the blank> or they look like, or for some reason the fuzzits you have begin to take on some of the nuances of those that have left for the Bridge. It's our way of staying as close to you as we can, until the time comes 'round where you are ready to be the one doing the leaving. On that day, those you love will surround you, not just with their spirits, but with their love, and enfold in wings so soft that it takes away all of the pain you are feeling, and then you are lifted high, to a place where you meet us in the flesh, or in our case, in the fuzz, and life begins anew. Johnny Ringo talked about that part a lot. That as funny as it seems for Rainbow Bridge ferrets to be going to a hoomin symposium, it would be sillier still if we were not in tip-top fuzzy shape for the day we get to greet you! In Love & In Comfort, Pie O' Pah [Posted in FML 7592]