Change That Law

When mean old Mayor Man decides to pass a Law making ferrets illegal, the five clever ferrets in the Mustela Secret Service decide to teach him how to laugh and play, and not be so angry and mean. But when they creep into his cold, dark house late that night, they find him hurt on the floor. How can five little ferrets work together to save his life?

~~~~~ Excerpt ~~~~~

“Taz,” Nova said, twitching her whiskers in the dim red light, “why does Mayor Man want to get rid of all ferrets? Even Humans don’t do things without a reason.”

“Not usually,” Taz agreed with a worried flick of his tail. “He says,” and his dark eyes moved toward Maggie, “that ferrets look like rats. Most Humans are afraid of rats. They aren’t welcome here.”

Maggie was so angry, she reared up on her back legs and clawed at the air. “Ferrets do not look like rats! We have bushy tails, and masks on our faces like raccoons! Even I have one—you just can’t see it!”

The other ferrets were black, silver, cinnamon, or brown. Their masks were the same colors, and easy to see. They did look a lot like raccoons, with their shiny dark eyes and curious noses.

Maggie was pure white, except for the tip of her tail, so it made sense that her mask would also be white.

Though he would never admit it, Taz thought she did look a bit like a sleek white rat—though no rat had ever been so proud of her bushy black-tipped tail. Maggie groomed it all the time, nibbling away dust and dirt to keep it full and shiny.

“We’re not blaming you, Maggie,” Nova soothed. “Mayor Man is not very smart if he can’t see that most ferrets look totally different. But Taz is right. A lot of Humans are afraid of mice and rats because they steal food and make messy nests in their walls.”

“We make nests, too,” Goliath said proudly. “My nest is in Boy’s bottom clothes drawer. His pants make a nice bed, and keep me warm at night.”

“We know, Goliath,” Zephyr smiled. Everyone knew where Goliath’s nest was. “But we keep our nests clean. We only put toys and special snacks in them. Mice and rats aren’t clean. That’s why Humans hate them.”

The young giant thought about that for a few minutes. “Maybe we could teach them to be clean, and then the Humans wouldn’t hate them or us!”

It was a great idea, but Nova couldn’t see how to make it happen. “Not all Humans hate us,” she reminded Goliath. “Just the Mayor Man. He has a lot of power in this town. We need to find some way of changing his mind, or he will make our Humans get rid of us.”

They talked, and talked, and talked some more. But none of them could figure out how to make the mean old Mayor Man change his mind about ferrets.

“We are not ugly and messy,” Maggie scowled as they paused for a snack of crunchy brown ferret pellets. “We just like to play and have fun.”

“I wish we could show him how to have fun,” Zephyr sighed. “Then maybe he wouldn’t be so mean.”

Taz sat up so suddenly that old Quincy jolted awake on his branch and peered down at them. “Zephyr, that’s it! If we show him how to have fun, he’s sure to like us!”