To TLE: I am very sorry to hear about Vixen's passing away. The
description of her cries reminded me of my aunt the last time she left
home in 1981. She, too, died of cancer. It's a heartbreaking experience.
 
I'm sad to hear about Spaz, too.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions for names. I'm leaning more and more
toward Lucky Charm for my little one, because I got her on Friday the 13th.
 
And I am all for getting the European rabies studies recognized in the
U.S. Ferrets have suffered enough -- we don't need to reinvent the wheel.
I'm also willing to scrape together a donation for an attorney to
represent ferret enthusiasts in rabies cases. And the thing that baffles
me most of all is, why, in this world of high technology we live in,
don't we have a blood test to see if someone's been exposed to rabies?
This business of destroying animals needlessly seems barbaric to me.
 
To the person who wrote about bats in Colorado: Rabies is quite rare
even in bats. And the only bat that "lives off blood" is the vampire bat,
which is extremely bashful, lives primarily in Mexico, and mostly attacks
livestock while they're sleeping by making a small, shallow incision and
lapping up blood with its tongue. Unless you go around cornering and
trying to grab bats, the chance of getting rabies from one is minutesimal
at best. Bats are good! They eat many times their weight in insects, they
pollinate plants, and are sensitive, smart, graceful, and gorgeous. The
chance of a pet getting rabies from a bat is also minute, unless the pet
comes upon a dying bat and doesn't know enough to leave it alone.
 
Guess what, everyone -- as I was sitting here writing my message, I heard
a mini-stampede and three little ferrets went galloping past the doorway
down the hall. I guess that means they're getting along! My little one is
following the other two around, because of course, she wants to grow up
to be juuuust like them!
 
                Linda, Espie, Frankie Doodle, and Lucky Charm
[Posted in FML issue 1083]