Fred the Ferret Read online

  Fred the Ferret

  By Anne Spackman

  Smashwords edition

  Copyright 2012 by Anne Spackman

  All rights reserved.

  Cover Art by littleulvar

  [email protected]

  Once upon a time, in a two-story house on Maple Street, lived a pet ferret named Fred. Fred was a young ferret male, called a hob. He was agile and quick, and had a very long body, strong little claws, and a tiny, cute face.

  Like most ferrets, Fred loved to play around. For instance, Fred loved the vacuum cleaner. It had a tube extension to it that sucked in dust. Fred’s owner, Mr. Smith, would show the vacuum to Fred, and Fred would have to jump away from it and run away. Fred loved to jump all of the time! He loved to bolt across the room! He played jumping games, jumping from the chair onto the desk, just to have a look about. He usually made a big mess there on the desk by scattering the papers on top of it. Fred had toys that the Smith family used to play with him, and Fred also liked to roll about in bed. Fred slept a long time every day, as most ferrets do, sleeping more than fourteen hours a day!

  One afternoon, Fred saw that the back sliding door of the house was open, and he decided to slip outside and have an adventure! Uh-oh! What trouble and mischief could Fred get himself into outside?

  Fred jumped into the back yard. Outside, it was a sunny day, the tiny birds were chirping and singing, and the sprinklers were on. Fred hurried away from the water that was sprinkling him and getting him wet. He didn’t like being sprinkled with water, even though he never minded getting a bath when he was dirty.

  Fred finally escaped the sprinklers. He came to an outside clothes dryer and jumped up onto a lawn chair bedside it to have a look at the dryer that was moving lightly in the wind. Well, the chair was full of clean towels, but Fred’s paws were muddy with dirt and grass. So, Fred left tiny paw prints across the towels. If any of the Smiths wondered about where he had gone, they would know that he had been outside when they saw the towels!

  Fred couldn’t see much of the clothes on the dryer, and he couldn’t reach them, so he finally jumped down from the chair. He heard a cat purring nearby. The outside cat, Snowball, was curled up on another lawn chair. Fred decided to go over to her to have a look at her, but Snowball, who was not a friendly cat, batted him away with her paw. Her paw grazed Fred’s nose. Fred winced, but he was all right. He decided not to bother the cat again.

  Fred went further than he had ever been before, and came to the edge of the fence. He ran along the fence for a few minutes, and came across a mouse toy stuck at the corner of the fence. Fred picked it up from the ground with his claws and played with it for a minute, but soon he was off, looking for a way outside the house and its yard.

  “There you are, you mischievous little thing!” called Mrs. Smith, who had spotted Fred by the fence. She came over and picked him up, and with that, Fred lost his moment of freedom and was taken back inside the house.

  And, it was getting near nap time. Fred was satisfied that he had been out on a little adventure, and he was getting sleepy. He curled up with his favorite toy on the bed, and was soon fast asleep. There was plenty of time to get in trouble again tomorrow.

  The end

 

 

  Anne Spackman, Fred the Ferret

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