SOCKS Laying on his back the large sable mitt feels a cool breeze flowing across his tummy. He rubs his eyes with his paws, white as snow. He remembers how those mitts got him his name. How long did he live with those other humans? 2 months? 3 months? They never even named him. Then that man came. He remembered well. He and his cagemate, a sexy little albino, went home with the man he now calls dad. How did it go again? Oh yeah. The man looked at him and said, "Looks like you are wearing little white socks. 'Socks' it shall be then, that is now your name". Socks thought for a second. Sure glad it wasn't something like 'Bootsie' or 'Mitts'. Socks was feeling a bit lightheaded. "Whoa! Gotta cut down on that Fuzzy Soup. That was one hell of a hallucination last night!". He opened his eyes to see everything upside down. "Guess I'm still hallucinating". Rolling onto his belly, he looked up to see a familiar face staring at him. Rascal? Nah! Couldn't be. Rascal smiled saying, "Hello Socks!" Socks shook his head and muttered, "No, no hallucination! This is for real". Socks stood up and wrapped his large arms around Rascal, "Well, brother of mine, looks like we made it". He looked at the two ferrets behind rascal and said, "Hello Lady, hello Zeus, so this is The Rainbow Bridge. Nice!". Socks laughed at the bewildered faces on Zeus, Rascal, and Lady. "You're wondering how I know, right?". "C'mon! I know Rascal left for the Bridge. I heard dad talk about him meeting Lady and Zeus there. So, since Rascal is here, this must be The Bridge and you must be Lady and Zeus". "Besides", he continued, "the weangle told me". Lady gasped, "You spoke with a weangle?" surprised filled her voice! "What's a weangle?" asked Rascal. Lady began to explain, but Socks interrupted. Socks could feel that familiar growling in his tummy. He turned to Lady, "This is the Bridge, right? All the food, ferretone, and nutrical ya can handle right? Well, lead me to the food! We can talk about the weangle while we eat". Rascal could not help but laugh. Looking at Socks he chortled, "You haven't changed at all, have you?". "We gotta watch our brother here. He has a habit of picking on the littler kids!". Socks just smiled and shook his head, "Nah! I'm not really a bully. Didya ever notice what happened when I did? Dad would pick me up and scold me. Then came the time out. Then he would hold me close and stroke my fur. He would say things like, 'Sorry I had to punish you'. "That's really why I did it, for the extra hugging and affection". [Posted in FML issue 2905]