Almost Losing Ziggy

          Even if the moon had not been shining through the thick trees that night in Misty Forest,

Paw Possum would have spotted Ziggy thrashing about on the pine-needled forest floor. “Ziggy, what’s wrong?” he hollered. When he ran to his side, he saw the bulge in his throat, “You’re choking!” He grabbed Ziggy’s throat with both hands, forcing the object out. Something white fell into the leaves beside them. Then Ziggy went limp. Next thing you know, Paw had Ziggy wrapped around him and he ran toward the road behind Miz Maddie’s house.

      Miz Maddie was taking in the bedspread she had hung on the clothesline last night to air. The radio was reporting scattered showers and she could already smell rain when Paw yelled, “Miz Maddie, call Doc and tell him we’re on our way! Ziggy’s choked and gone limp!”

She was on the phone quicker than rabbits can hop, and thankfully, Do Deer answered.          “They’re on their way. They just left my back fence,” she shouted breathlessly.

“Who’s on their way, Miz Maddie?”

“Paw Possum’s got Ziggy wrapped all around his shoulders.  He said Ziggy choked and is limp!”

   Before Paw ever knocked,  Doc Deer’s office door flew open. “Bring him over here, Paw.” The doctor checked for a pulse, “He’s unconscious but he’s still alive. What did you say happened?”

   I found him writhing in the forest; I saw the big bulge in his throat. I used both hands to force it out. That’s when he went limp.”

          Two rainy days later Ziggy still remained in a coma. Doc Deer had asked everyone to pray and they did.  Most of the townspeople gathered on the doctor’s front porch in an all-night vigil.

      The next day: Ziggy woke up! But he couldn’t utter a word.

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         Meanwhile, Paw went back to the far side of Misty Forest where he had found Ziggy three days earlier and began a systematic search among the leaves, logs, bushes, and pine needles to find what Ziggy had swallowed. “There it is!”   A small white ball—-a hard ball. A golf ball, for sure. He hurried back to Doc’s office with his evidence.

          

                        Fairy Fox and the Missing Marmot Child      

      It was dark outside and not quite morning when Miz Maddie heard voices on the road outside her gate.  She slipped out of bed and stepped to the front porch to listen. Only the hoot of a far-away owl friend. She reached the fence, grabbing hold of the pickets to steady herself, and squinted up and down the road. Only shadows from the trees full of wisteria vines moved in the wind.  She opened the gate and bent down to look.  There, a fresh track!  Her fingers followed the outline, feeling the dampness.  Fairy Fox?

     He had been traveling back and forth from the reservoir most every day. Three months ago he was the one who brought back the tragic news; the Platoro Reservoir dam had collapsed, carrying many, many people away in the rushing water.

    One of the survivors of that disaster, Mamie Marmot, came to live in Cornersville bringing her two children. Their granddaddy Martin Marmot, a quiet gentleman who lives alone up the River Road insisted they come. Before the tragedy, Mamie, her husband, and the three little ones lived happily among the rocks below the massive reservoir. But now they were only three. Mamie’s husband and one of the children had disappeared that night in the flood.

      When they arrived the entire Cornersville community welcomed them and brought groceries and home-cooked meals to help them settle in.  Fairy Fox, who was one of the first to welcome Mamie and her children to town,  pledged he would return to search for her husband and child. And Fairy had been faithful to that promise traveling the 12 mile journey day after day.  Only last week, Fairy brought back from the river station a dark brown, knit nightcap with a while ball on one end. When he showed it to the family they recognized it: their dad and husband wouldn’t be coming back.

     Long after the emergency crews stopped their operations at the site, Fairy Fox continued his search, talking to everyone along the roads, asking questions. He posted signs and even dared hope someone had taken the orphan to live with them. He was determined to take back the truth, even if only proof of the body.

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     By the time the sun moved slightly above the trees the next morning, the news had spread across the entire community:  “Fairy found the other little marmot and brought him safely home to his family last night!”

     So now you know, little reader, the happy ending to the mysterious footprint in the road last night. It was Fairy Fox carrying the youngest marmot up from the river.