First and foremost, I have got to thank Leslie and Brad Colton! I was
going to do this yesterday, but i got busy with the holiday You see,
we've always taken ferrets everywhere from Home Depot to various pretty
places outdoors. But we never would have thought about videotaping the
experiences. I have some shots of fuzzies playing in leaves and snow,
but not many. It was their FML posts a while back of Leslies hot hubby
hiking in GA and swimming in the river with their ferrets that gave me
the idea, "Oh, maybe we should video tape our precious times with our
fuzzies too. Gee, maybe I should YouTube them too, I mean I never
thought anyone would care to see them."

Here is Pharos playing with a young Sean at a family camping trip.
We're novice campers, unlike the Coltons. Both boys had sexy hair back
then. Somehow, Sean isn't as sexy on the raft with a ferret as Brad is.
Unless you are 15.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN7WvhbXekM

Oh, I guess you wanna see the Leslie's hot hubby too, huh? Okaaaaaaay,
here you go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxIXYEaqqEw
And here is a really nice hiking/camping video from them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zofqn-MuFLk
(Leslie, we need to see your bodacious self in videos too!).

Second, also to the Coltons. The bluehole was a treasure to real
outdoors people such as yourselves. But word got out over the years
and kids along with a very unsavory crowd ruined it. And I mean nearly
destroyed it. We could not go there for a while because of the glass,
trash, and even dangerous crime that was rising there. So that's why
the state took it over. People such as ourselves could not keep it
clean or police it enough, so we cried help. Thank God we got it. It's
not only okay again, but much improved in the lower areas for novices.
But ... there is still a little crime lurking.

A few weeks ago, Chet came home from the area after training with Zee
all afternoon. He flew into the home out of breath and asked if we were
okay. "You haven't had the TV on? I mean the Police didn't show up here
or anything?" You know as great as Chet is, he's still a "kid" and as
rednecks love to say, "I don't trust no kid as far as yew can throw
em". So you can imagine the bad thoughts zooming through our brains.
The he explained. At the entrance of the pocket wilderness, he met with
two troopers who just had casually stopped in. Chet introduced them to
the Ferret of Doom and the police were intrigued by the little Creek
Weasel. Luckily (and those that have met him will "get this"), he made
a real impression on those guys. Later that day, Chet was on top of one
of those mountains in the movie and his phone got service for a bit.
The phone rang and it was his work. They were frantic and told him to
get out of dodge quick. A nut case found his way deep into the woods
there and holed himself up with a gun/rifle and knive(s). He fancied
himself Rambo. The cops had remembered that Chet was there for an all
day run and that he was going deep past the park, etc. This guy was
right where Chet had headed. The police had been searching for both.
Now, I didn't know police could do this. But they found Chets car by
the road, read the ID number on the dash or whatever and tracked down
all his info. They called our house, his work, his cell, everywhere.
Chets cell was out of reach. We have our phones ringers off because the
bill collectors get my bipolar triggered during some times of the year.
So they could not reach us. They did get in touch with work and work
just kept calling until they reached him. Chet emerged from the woods
to see 18 police cars and search parties. Chet was exhilarated by it
all and I got irate that he wasn't scared. I asked, what in the blazes
would he have done if you had run across that guy?? You know the goofy
grin he flashed the camera several times? He just said, "mom who could
be mad at me? My hippy self would have soothed the guy, and if that
didn't work, come on ...WHO could resist a cute fuzzie?" Later the
police found the "armed, violent nut job". He turned out to be very
sick and a lost soul in great pain. He had shot himself and apparently
done it early on.

Third, thank you so much Marie. It was so very thoughtful of you to go
take a peek and reply here!!

Lastly, Edward our Edward. I will pass your letters to Chet as soon as
possible. The guy is very hard working. He is an assistant manager to
a small restaurant (earned that by nineteen!!!), goes to school full
time, and helps every day with our little zoo, with Sean, and me and my
problems as well. Very little spare time, very little. He will truly
be so appreciative of all the thought and effort that went into your
writings. There is a lot of information there for him to think about,
and he will no doubt get excited about that.

He will be shocked to find out that so many people took a gander at the
movie, let alone responded to it. Yes, Ed, the video taping and music
are his creations. I put it together for him so he could put it up on
YouTube, and in fact I surprised him with the music. I didnt' get
permission. Sukie and Alex very well know that Chet is a "basement"
musician and sadly for us, only creates music for himself. He writes
and records all this stuff, then shelves it. He is not shy about
performing in front of people and having fun. But as far as this stuff
he records, he does not like showing it to anyone and he gets really
uncomfortable and shy when I do. He gets embarrassed and doubts most
of it is any good. On top of that, he is in conflict about sharing
recorded music. He believes that art is there to not just express
himself but that the whole point is to share it with others. He feels
that many artists are a bit full of themselves and selfish with their
work (in reference to the huge hoopla about copy rights nowadays). He
has conflicting feelings about that and about the thought of someone
stealing his stuff at the same time just like anyone else. So, that's
the story on that.

Isn't Zee's story something? Such a golden example of everything
that is wrong with early weaning and neutering by Farms, lack
of satisfactory protective laws for shipping ferrets, horrible
warehouse/holding areas (middle guys), and lack of education on
pet stores parts? That's why I documented it.

Oh forgot to thank Florence Love. She wrote me in private as she
noticed that Zee's tail was sparse, and suggested nipping that in the
bud and to get some implants into him. Indeed his tail is sparse, and
that's gone on for a couple months now not making it not just a case of
rat tail. I had already advised Chet to do implants 2x a year when he
was a year old for prevention. He didn't want to. See, I really feel
strongly about this guys. In every ferret that I have implanted spring
and fall since year one? Not one has had a case of adrenal or died of
such. I've only done this to several ferrets (half of mine) so it's
not fair to say to everyone this is a fact. But, it's still a pretty
impressive history. Then I told him that he should definitely start
implants a couple months ago after realizing he's a few years old now
and seeing his tail was not totally normal. He considered and then
procrastinated. After Florence contacted me, I took a closer look and
yup .. the tops of his feet aren't as full and fuzzy as I prefer ...
but could still be considered "normal". I showed this to Chet, so he
is now going to do it. Found out why he procrastinated too. It wasnt'
because of laziness or money. But he winces at the thought of doing it
lmao. And he called his dad a wuss????? His daaaaaaad, GIVES the dang
implants to our ferrets himself! Anyway, he will not let any animal or
human go through any procedure alone. Especially after what he went
through. And he really hasn't the stomach for it lmao. He says he will
suck it up and do it now.

Sheesh. What a long @ss post here. What else is new?

Wolfy

[Posted in FML 6565]