OK, now that I got your attention...
 
I went to the USDA eDocket site this morning, and I went through some of
the comments and letters you people have been writing.  I want to thank
everyone who's voiced their opinion on this thing.  I will go a long way
in helping many of the problems face.  You know, yada yada yada...
 
But I noticed something.  Some of you people can't write worth a damn.
Bad punctuation, run-on sentences, misspellings - good god, you're an
English teacher's nightmare.  Just the grammar alone would qualify some
of you for federal assistance.
 
And I love it.
 
I like to think that I can put a sentence or two together without
mangling the English language.  As a matter of fact, I pride myself on
my writing skills, if I don't say so myself... uh, which I just did.  I
wrote a fancy, four page letter and sent it to the USDA.  It took me two
days, and I got out my reading glasses and everything.  After it was
published in PDF format on the site, some of you guys emailed me and told
me how great it was.  Thanks.  I really didn't need trouble getting out
of the door with my big fat head.
 
But it was only one letter.  Just one.  And it wasn't even my favorite (I
have long since put a pin in my forehead and let out some of the air).
My favorite was a comment which talked simply of how much this person
cared for ferrets, and that they realized that, even though it hurt to
think about what ferrets go through every day, they needed to let the
USDA know that changes need to be made.  It was a bit misspelled,
somewhat grammatically incorrect, and in general - just perfect.
 
That's what we need.  Real opinions and comments from real poop-cleaning,
ferret-hugging people.  You don't have to be a veterinarian (although we
DO need lots more of you guys voicing your opinions.  Quit lurking,
already!).  You don't have to be some kind of ferret expert.  You don't
even need to own a masticating Mustelidae!  You just need to know that
the current way of doing things is wrong and needs to be changed.  Your
voice means something, and someone is listening to it.  All you need to
do is speak.
 
Thanks to everyone who has sent a letter or made a comment (except for
jackass anonymous comment # 54, who thinks that conditions for ferrets
are just peachy the way that they are.  He or she probably thinks the
gulf coast is just a little damp).  I know you guys are getting burned
out constantly hearing about this, but hey... at least this post didn't
have the words "evil, mean, wicked, or nasty." Uh, until just now...
sorry.
 
Thanks again.  And more importantly, your future fuzzies will thank you.
 
Roary
Albuquerque, NM
blog - http://ferretphilosophy.blogspot.com/
 
ps.  By the way, I ran my post through the spell-checker, and I had
misspelled "mispelled." :/
[Posted in FML issue 4988]