Email from Diane....

An email from Diane to a mailing list that many people in the ferret community belong to.... I just thought it was so poignant and wanted to share...

Do you believe in messages or signs, divine intervention perhaps?

I know many times when coincidences happen we like to think that they are signs. Good messages from the bridge. While I can be somewhat subtle in giving some communications, I am somewhat dense when hints are being dropped in my direction.

While it may be wishful thinking on my part,

from the Reflecting Pool at the Bridge,

I believe I am hearing some splashing.

Here for your review, I submit the following for consideration:

My little boy Oreo of which I posted last week "Oreo Hopping to the Bridge" was quite an inspiration to me and many others. He was the mascot of South Shore Ferret Care and while all the ferrets are special, certain ones stand out, and teach me something. Like we have all felt, there was a empty feeling in the ferret room after Oreo was gone, it was a tangible and a heavy feeling. I was tempted to consider keeping a beautiful young ferret to fill the void but knew that there was another special ferret out there that really needed me.

A friend of mine and I were discussing a ferret who needed to be rescued from a bad situation, through the animal control officer a condemned house, vague and scary details. It had been a week or two and I hadn't heard anything about this ferret and hoped the situation was resolved. With everything else going on at the shelter, I didn't get a chance to follow up with her.

My friend Laurie called me on my cell phone on my way home to let me know that this ferret was now in custody and needed to go through the "ferret underground railroad". Although this was a serious situation, she sounded quite upbeat.

Ferret's coming to me in this manner don't usually have names but this one did..............OREO

I couldn't speak for a minute, was this a sign? I never have heard of another ferret with my Oreo's name.

My heart raced, was it him coming back? What did this ferret look like? I rattled off a million questions, what color? boy or girl? how old? None of that mattered, I knew this ferret was supposed to come to me!

As I walked from my car to the ferret entrance putting my cell phone away I looked down, there was a delivery,

it was my Oreo's ashes back from Angel View.

It's silly but I hugged the box, happy he was once again "home" and placed him in a place of honor next to my mom's ashes, top shelf.

Yesterday, several of us gathered at Rose German's house yesterday (Little Feet Ferret Retreat) for a luncheon, "Ferret Ladies who Lunch" (ha,ha), a welcome respite from my full time job as a mortgage underwriter (imagine how much fun that is these days) and other beyond full time job at South Shore Ferret Care.

There she was, a little black sable female, I spoke softly to her, blinked back a few tears, my mind drifting off for a second, crossing my eyes and hoping for some super special telecommic powers...........and then she bit me!

Yep, There's my sign!

It was as if my Oreo was saying "silly Mama, it's not me Oreo coming back, I just SENT her to you!

She has the same name so you would know that it was ME sending HER to you!!

Pay attention Mama, uncross your eyes! Huh, she doesn't even look anything like me, and she's a GIRL, hello!

I'm over the bridge splashing in the reflecting pool so you can't help but focus. You've got more work to do, so KEEP GOING! They offered to give me back my leg but I didn't want it cause you said it made me extra special"

After my first visit with the new ferret Oreo girl, and still sucking on my finger, too embarrassed to tell the others, Eleanor Mead gave me a special present. It was a special ferret figurine with beautiful blue wings lying down looking up with a "LuvU" look, guess what, the figurine has three legs and inspired Eleanor to make him just that way, on the bottom it says Oreo!

What a great day we had! We even called April at Totally Ferret and each one of us sang Happy B-Day to her to get as much as we could donated to SOS. When it was my turn we did dook-dook-dook-dook-dook to the tune of Happy B-Day!

Today of course it's back to work. A bit sleepy from being up late with Michele's help at the shelter last night and early up to soup and medicate everyone, I stumble into work at the mortgage company.

Sometimes vendors send us things to entice us to send them more business, but with corporate budgets being tight in these financial times those little perks have all but ceased.

What's this on my desk? It's from one of the closing attorney's we haven't used for a while, a big glass jar of ..........

OREO cookies...................

So you decide, fate, signs, coincidence????

Messages from the reflecting pool, SPLASH,

Thanks- Oreo!

Mama is paying attention and misses you too!

Diane Wall

South Shore Ferret Care

PS. The new girl he sent me will be called "Aria" we have made friends, despite her biting my ankle this morning, because my heart can "sing" again.............