Skeeziks was restless, too. He wanted to be out running around the room and sniffing everything and burrowing in the covers on the bed. Nippy was the only one who seemed content to take a nap.
"How can you take a nap at a time like this?" Fizzy just didn't understand what could be fun about sleeping. "We need to get out and run and play!"
"I run and play in my sleep," said Nippy.
Skeeziks was confused. "How can you run and play if you are asleep?" That just didn't make much sense to him.
"Easy, silly ferret." Nippy had a twinkle in her eyes. "I go to Ferret Dream Land."
Skeeziks and Fizzy looked at each other with amazement. "What's Ferret Dream Land?" they both asked.
"Ferret Dream Land is where you go when you are asleep. You can do all kinds of neat things there. Everything that you want to do when you are awake but can't, you can do in Ferret Dream Land."
Fizzy looked at her sister. "You mean I can scratch at the carpet?"
"And I can dig in the shoes?" Skeeziks was excited.
"Yes," said Nippy. "you can do all of those things and more!"
Fizzy and Skeeziks started hopping excitedly around the cage.
"When can we go there?" Fizzy was so excited that she jumped right on top of her older sister.
Nippy playfully bit her ear in retaliation. "We'll go tonight when everyone else goes to bed. Now calm down and stop jumping on me!"
Later that evening, mm and dad noticed that it was easier than usual to get the kids to go to sleep.
"I guess they wore themselves out playing," said mom as the ferrets yawned and stretched.
Dad laughed. "I guess you're right." Then he closed the cage door. After making sure they had food in the food bowl and water in their water bottle, he turned out the lights.
"Sweet dreams, my little ferrets."
And sweet they would be.
The ferrets curled up in the hammock. They had tried to stay awake all day so that they could go to Ferret Dream Land. Nippy had promised to meet Fizzy and Skeeziks in their dreams and show them around. Soon the three were fast asleep.
Fizzy looked around in her dream world. She saw the hammock, the food dish, the water bottle and the cage.
"I don't see how this is any different from when we are awake." She sounded disappointed.
Skeeziks had bounded down the ladders. What he saw made him a believer in Nippy's story. "Hey! The cage door is open and mom and dad aren't here!"
Fizzy and Nippy bounded down the ladder after him.
"It IS open!" Fizzy was amazed.
"I told you everything that you want is here. How else would you get to everything if the door was closed?" Nippy was picking on the small ferret. She was glad to see Fizzy smiling and excited. When they first got here she seemed so sad that everything looked the same.
"Hey, what are you guys waiting for?" Skeeziks was ready to go, but he wanted to wait for Nippy and Fizzy because he hadn't been here before.
The three of them ran out the cage door into the rest of the room. Shoes were laying everywhere! Nippy climbed right up into one and started digging at the bottom of it. If she was doing it, then it must be okay. She never gets into trouble. Skeeziks and Fizzy looked at each other, shrugged and dove into a pile of shoes.
Oh the fun they had! They dug up the soles of all the shoes they saw on the floor and no one gave them a time out for it!
"Hey, look!" Fizzy had seen something strage and wonderful. The other two came over to see what she was looking at.
The door to the room was open and on the other side was a grass field. The rest of the house seemed to have disappeared. In the middle of the field the ferrets saw something amazing. There was a huge pile of ...
DIRT!
Ferrets love to dig and dirt is so much fun because you get dirty. The three of them tunneled through the dirt until there were so many tunnels they started falling through the floors. Exhausted, they decided to tunnel to the other side of the dirt pile and see what else was here.
Skeeziks stopped dead in his tracks. He looked very worried.
"What's wrong?" Nippy couldn't understand what on earth could be wrong with the boy.
"Well, we just dug through all that dirt and now we are dirty."
"Yeah, so?"
Skeeziks squirmed. "Well, won't they give us a bath now?"
"Ah, now I understand." Nippy cringed just thinking about a bath. She had heard mom say that some ferrets like the water, but the three of them absolutely did not!
She looked at Skeeziks and smiled. "No, we won't get a bath. There aren't any humans here and besides baths aren't fun. Only fun things happen here. We can run around all dirty if we want to."
Skeeziks perked up when he heard this. Fizzy started dooking from her excitement of getting to run around covered in dirt.
"Come on," said Nippy, "I think I see something else even more fun than dirt."
Only one thing was more fun than dirt and the other two saw what she was talking about immediately.
Socks.
There were socks everywhere! They were hanging off of rocks, laying in the grass, and some seemed to be growing out of the trees. The ferrets loved to play tug of war with sockes. They liked pulling on them, dragging them and putting them over their heads. Eventually, all the socks were in a pile covered in dirt from the ferrets rolling around on them.
After this, Skeeziks and Fizzy were totally worn out. They pleaded with Nippy to let them take a break from walking around, but she wouldn't hear of it just yet.
"I have one more thing to show you," she said.
"But we're tired!" Skeeziks was dragging along and Fizzy was tripping over her own feet.
"Not too much farther now and we can all rest."
Just over a small hill, Nippy started dooking very loudly. "This is it! Now we can rest."
Skeeziks and Fizzy looked around. All they saw were bowl shaped flowers that came up to their noses.
Fizzy was exasperated! "Flowers? You wanted us to see some flowers? I can see flowers while I'm awake!"
"Wait a minute, Fizzy." Skeeziks had stopped to sniff one of the flowers. "These aren't just any flowers." He started dooking and shaking from excitement.
"Fine. I"ll sniff one flower and --"
Just as soon as she sniffed, she realized what it was. FEROTONE! How they loved ferotone! This was their favorite treat! Mom and dad gave them a little each day, but never as much as they wanted.
Each of them began attacking the flowers filled with ferotone. They licked it up until they had gotten most of the field.
Bellies full, laying in the sun, the three ferrets became sleepy.
Skeeziks yawned. "What happens when we fall asleep here?"
"Yeah, Nippy. What happens when we fall asleep in Ferret Dream Land?" Fizzy was almost too tired to talk.
"Simple. We wake up in our hammock." Nippy stretched. She was glad that Fizzy and Skeeziks had so much fun.
"Can we come back tomorrow night?" Ever the fun-loving baby ferret, Skeeziks wanted to know they could come back whenever they wanted to.
"Yes, we can come back as often as we like. Every night if we want to." Nippy's eyelids started drooping. Soon, the ferrets were dozing in their dream world.
"Look at them sleeping all curled up together." Dad was getting ready to open up the cage door to let them run.
"It looks like they are dreaming. See how they are twitching like they are digging in something?" Mom was fascinated by the way they licked their lips as if they were tasting something good.
Just then, Fizzy opened her eyes. Mom was holding her and scratching her back.
"Did you dream about something good, Fizzy?" The little ferret just yawned and stretched.
"I wonder what they do dream about?" Mom looked at dad who was scratching Skeeziks' back and had Nippy climbing on his shoulders.
"I don't know," he said. "I would guess it is something good."
They put the ferrets down to run and play. The ferrets looked at each other and smiled. They would never tell of that wonderful place and the great adventures they had in Ferret Dream Land.
