One warm and sunny morning, Fifì, the badger, was walking on the borders of a field when he saw a fig tree. Fifì was gluttonous for figs and he used to wait for the autumn only to eat as many figs as he could.
That tree with big leaves looking like an open hand carrying sweet, delicious and soft fruits was so loaded of figs that many had already fallen on the ground before the farmer could pick them.
Fifì thought: “You are all mine!” and started to eat figs after figs. He could not stop, he had not eaten a figue up that he had already another one in its paws.
One fig
Two figs
Three figs
….
Many figs.
Fifì had nearly eaten up the umpteenth fig that passed out and he fell on the ground under that same tree that fed him up until it was so full to faint.
Fortunately Camilla, who a local farmer and a friend of Fifì, passed by and she knelt next to Fifì in order to check the little badger.
“Fifì, wake up!” Camilla shook him trying to wake him up, but Fifì could barely breathe and was so swallen that he looked like he was on the verge of exploding.
Camilla lifted Fifì and took him to her place, she laid him on a soft sack of sheep wool and she called the vet, doctor Stefanopulos or Stefan as she used to call him.
When the vet arrived, Fifì had worsen because he was having nightmares and he was crying as badgers do when they are really ill. Camilla did not leave that poor badger that used to play with her sheep.
“Hi there! What’s up?” asked the vet.
“Hi Stefan I found this badger under one of my fig trees. He’s hardly breathing and he looks like he has something in his stomach. I am so sorry to see him suffering.”
“Let me have a look!” Stefan started to check the animal in a really serious and thorough way that worried Camilla even more.
Silence. Worry. Nightmares and…a grumbling stomach.
After a time lapse that seemed a hundred years long, Stefan looked up and told Camilla to get closer. Stefan’s eyes were more relaxed now, nearly happy, and Camilla did not know what to think.
“So?” she asked
“Your badger has eaten so many figs that he passed out!” Stefan was laughing.
“What?” Camilla was speechless and started laughing too.
“Give this syrup to your badger and he will be better in a few days.”
“Thanks, Stefan, what about a glass of wine before you go?”
“Yes, please!”
They sat under an Isabella grape pergola while talking about ttheir common interest: the love for animals.
Storiupole 