With Stoat, no doubt.
“I have dreamed of joy departed”
Me: These pillows are exquisite but they seem to be of rock, the stitching painted on, not sown. Would they cost more if they were stitched and sown or is the price determined by the stone?
Shop Lady: How good your eye is my dear. Yes they are costly and they are dear but not because they are pillow or they are stone, their worth is mine to know and mine alone.
Me: Well not my eye so much as my self knows, as I can barely See most Curiosities. Is this pillow to be thrown or leaned upon? Does it sit upon a Pedestal or upon a Throne? Is it Art or is it Comfort?
Do I repose my head or toss it on the seas? Why would I pay for such a thing as theses?
Shop Lady: Well thrown of course, who I ask would lean up on a rock? Have you never heard of a pillow fight where cats let go? A cat needs an advantage in a pillow fight with a stoat.
Me: I see I am among cats.
Shop Lady: Of course my dear, where else would anyone want to be?
However to be clear, we are not all of us cats here.
Me: Well I know She is not a cat as she doesn’t have a tail.
She: Of course I have a tale, everyone has a tale, one just must look for it sometimes and at other times one must listen to it.
She: My tail is short but longer than the Least but my tale is long and with detail, a veritable story feast. However, I need sustenance to tell my tale, so here I cease.
Me: Oh good woman would you allow me to buy you a high tea? Do you know of an establishment that might also serve a small sherry or even a strong beer?
She: Would gin do my dear?
Barkeep: Will you have some water in your gin?
Me: No I take my gin, like my water, straight.
So with bread, butter, jam and cress…gin, lager, and all the rest…
THE TALE BEGAIN
My name is Mary Stoat, she said, but you appear to be no one but me.
Yes, I said, I am no one but me. My name I keep inside until I need.
Then the following Saga did proceed.
The stoat is an opportunistic predator, which moves rapidly and mostly silently to hunt in every available burrow or crevice for its prey. Because of their larger size, male stoats are less successful than females in pursuing rodents into tunnels.
As with stoats and all else BEWARE the Female!
The stoat or short tailed weasel reputedly immobilizes prey such as: rabbits, cats, and divorcees; by mesmerizing them with a “dance” oft called the Weasel War Dance. When tackling larger prey, the stoat bites the nape of the victim’s neck while grasping it with its forefeet, intertwines its body around the animal then scratches its lower body with its back feet. Contrary to popular belief, blood which flows from resulting wounds is not sucked up but lapped up. The Stoat is a sensuous albeit vicious entity; a hunter both efficient and fascinating.
Beyond Compare Beware, Beware!
The stoat may “surplus kill” when the opportunity arises, though excess prey is usually cached and eaten later to avoid obesity. For, as in their world as in our world too,
Overweight stoats tend to be at a disadvantage when pursuing prey.
The skins of stoats are prized by the fur trade, especially when in their in winter coat and their furs are used to trim robes, coats and stoles. Their winter coat is referred to as Ermine.
The Ermine Skin or Winter Stoat’s luxurious fur is often used by Catholic Monarchs, Pontiffs and Cardinals. Ermine is still and perhaps will always be a sign that the status of the wearer is equal or greater than that of Nobility.
Stoats are not as accepting of this role as they are more apt to feel that the wearing of their own skin allows them to be the ruler of all they survey!
Folklore and Mythology
In some Mythologies stoats are viewed, like humans, as animals with families, which hold rituals for their dead. However, they are also portrayed as noxious animals prone to thieving, and their saliva was said to be able to poison a grown man. To encounter a stoat when setting out for a journey was considered bad luck, but one could avert this by greeting the stoat as a friend or neighbor.
“Hail Mary Well Met, Want to come over for a Bite after Work?”
“We’re having fish tacos”.
Stoats were also supposed to hold the souls of infants who died before some god accepted them. Now who wouldn’t want a baby’s soul?
In the folklore of the Kome People of the Urals, stoats are symbolic of beautiful and coveted young women. HaH, BEWARE BEWARE!
In the Zoroastrian Religion, the stoat is considered a sacred animal, as its white winter coat represented purity. Similarly, Mary Magdalene was depicted as wearing a white stoat pelt as a sign of her reformed character.
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