Lillie at the Bridge

This greeting is a very special greeting. It is dedicated to all ferrets who have been abused or neglected. May they all one day find peace.

~Sandee Ferrit

The Boss had told me just a day ago that I was going to be greeting a fuzzy named Lillie. When I looked on my new-arrivals list, I realized that I had no information on Lillie whatsoever. That was rather odd. How was I supposed to know it was her? I did not know what she looked like, who her hoomins were (if any), or what it was that had caused her to come to the Bridge. All I knew was her name - Lillie.

I wanted to know more about Lillie, so I went to go see the Boss. When I asked about Lillie, I could see in his eyes that he was disquieted, and he remained silent. He looked like he wanted to say something, but choked it back. I was dumbfounded. I had never seen the Boss like this before. I didn't know what to make of it. I could not tell if he was saddened or angry, because I really hadn't see him in either condition. More or less, what he looked like was tired. I left him not really knowing what to think.

I headed down to the Bridge. When I got there, however, The Boss was already there. I approached the Bridge to look for Lillie, but the Boss turned his head gently as if he meant me to stop. He was kneeling on the Bridge, and in his hands he held a small, sable-colored female fuzzy. She didn't look to be two years old, and was nowhere big enough to fill the Boss' hands. She was peacefully sleeping, her tail tucked over her nose. Breathing slowly and quietly, she looked just like any other fuzzy. Every once in a while, however, I would hear her whimper softly in her sleep. Each time she whimpered, the Boss would take his finger and ever so gently stroke the back of her head and neck. It seemed to soothe her, and she moved a bit, curling tighter into a ball.

Was this Lillie? Watching the Boss and this sleeping fuzzy together made me feel as if I should quiesce. It was a very intimate thing watching them both. I wanted to ask the Boss what was happening, and if this was Lillie, but I decided that I shouldn't disturb either one of them. I sat on the ground near the end of the Bridge and waited patiently.

The Boss stayed on the Bridge for hours with this young fuzzy in his hands. For bits and pieces, I fell asleep, but then awoke again to find the Boss still kneeling in the same position he was in when I had closed my eyes. I didn't know what to do, exactly, so I stayed still. I thought to myself that if this wasn't Lillie, then Lillie must not be coming. But that couldn't be right, could it? The Boss wouldn't have told to me to come here if Lillie wasn't coming, would he? It must be her, I thought. Who else could it have been? I remained right where I sat. Besides, sitting here with the Boss was something that hardly any of us ever got to do, and it was very peaceful. I felt as if nothing could harm me. I would wait as long as he needed me to.

The Boss knelt there silently for hours while the young fuzzy slept, and only occasionally would she whimper. Her whimperings became less frequent, and over the hours they eventually stopped. Occasionally, he would stroke her head and neck, and she would stretch a bit, yawn, and then curl back up into a ball. I hadn't noticed it before, but there was no wind blowing the leaves of the trees at the Bridge. The stream under the Bridge was almost glass-like, flowing with almost no sound. It was as if the wind and the water were trying to be still for the Boss and this young fuzzy. I smiled, and slowly nodded my head. Ay, I knew myself what they were trying to do. We were one, the wind, the water, and I.

Suddenly the Boss stood, the young fuzzy still in his hands. She was stretching and yawning, and appeared to have started to awaken. The Boss looked over at me and told me that he would be back, and then he took the young fuzzy somewhere else without ever telling me where they were going. I waited. What else could I do? He had told me that he would be back, and I'm sure that he was expecting me to be here. I still didn't know if this young fuzzy was Lillie or not, but it seemed not to matter so much now.

The Boss returned after a little while, and right away he came to me and held my paw. The warmth of his hands is something hard to explain. They just don't make your paws warm, they make your entire body feel warm and at ease. He looked at me and nodded. I knew that I could ask him now.

"Was that Lillie?" I asked.

"Aye," he said, "It was."

"Was?" That was a funny word to use? Didn't he mean "is?" Had something happened to Lillie? Was she still here? The Boss could see the look in my eyes, and he drew me close to him. It was an amazing feeling, being so close to the Boss. He explained to me what had happened to Lillie back in the Hoomin world. She had been abused by a despicable bunch of hoomins for qu ite some time. Luckily, a Kind Soul had rescued her. This Kind Soul could not keep Lillie, however, and Lillie went to live with a man who had promised to keep watch over her. The whole time Lillie was in the Hoomin world, the only fuzzy friend she had was her brother Vash, and for a short while they were very close. But the man was not what he had seemed, and even though the Kind Soul had checked in to watch over her, Lillie's mostly unhappy life was soon over.

"Was she hurt?" I asked the Boss.

"Aye, she was. Very badly, I'm afraid," the Boss replied.

It finally dawned on me what the Boss had been doing while he was kneeling at the Bridge with Lillie. I had felt it myself when he had taken my paw. He had been healing her in his hands! With every caress of his fingers, Lillie was being healed. All of this had happened while she painlessly slept. I wondered where Lillie was now. It had been on my mind ever since the Boss had used the word "was." I asked the Boss where she had gone.

"She's gone where you and your hoomin will someday go, Sandee," he replied, his face looking tired, "I cannot tell you where, only that one day you both will leave here for that place. It is a beautiful place, Sandee. Truly beautiful. You will just have to trust me."

"Did Lillie have any hoomins to go with her?" I asked.

"Aye, no - no hoomins will be going with her," he replied, "Eventually she will meet with her brother Vash. The hoomin that might have gone with her will not be going there. He has let her down, and has not earned his place there. It makes me quite sad, Sandee."

I quietly nodded my head. I left the Boss to head back to my hidey-hole, worn out from the experience. I was a bit wiser, however, and I thought I understood things a bit better. And then, I wasn't sure I understood things at all. It was difficult to understand exactly how I was feeling. All I could think about was Lillie and what had happened to her in the Hoomin world. As I walked back, something happened that had never before happened at the Bridge. The sky darkened, and the clouds turned grey and meshed into each other, hovering close to the ground. I felt a drop of water on my head, then a few more. I looked up into the sky and water pelted my eyes. My goodness, it was raining. For the first time ever at the Bridge, it was raining.

~Sandee Ferrit