The black footed ferret stories remind me of when I moved from Montreal to
Boston with my fuzzies... I lived up in Montreal for a few years, and so
used a particular border crossing in Vermont often enough to recognize the
year-round border guards who worked there.  One of them was a real prune,
very rude to everyone and seemed to enjoy terrorizing people-- everybody
was guilty until proven innocent in his book.  So as we approached the
border, I was hoping that we wouldn't run into him.  Our luck seemed good;
they didn't ask to search my U-Haul (not that there was anything to find
in it, but it would have taken hours), and although they'd never dealt
with ferrets before, the guards on duty were very rational about it and
called the nearest USDA vet for advice (fortunately that vet was up on
his regulations).
 
So, I picked up the ferrets' carrier from the counter, and was just turning
to leave when-- yep, it was the old grouch!  He yelled at me to wait, and
came over.  "What kind of ferrets are those?" he barked at me.  "um," said
I, "they're just ferrets, domestic ferrets, there's not really different
kinds..."
 
"No," he growled at me, "_some_ ferrets are endangered!" I think I gaped
at him openmouthed for several seconds before collecting myself enough to
reply "oh, you mean black-footed ferrets, no, these are regular pet
ferrets."  He was ok with that and let us go-- I really think he just
wanted to scare me!  Granted back in those days Cully had pretty much the
same coloring as a BFF, but I can't imagine just cavalierly traveling
around with wild mustelids in a cat carrier!  A mile down the road I
finally started breathing again, and then I stopped breathing because i
was laughing so hard :-)
 
Regina Harrison  [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]
 
Gossamer into Spiderweb: new, moved, and mightily improved:
http://www.channel1.com/users/regina/~gossamer.html
 
                nothing but future ruins
             the material for the next layer
[Posted in FML issue 3531]