:))  poster in alpha position says:
 
>Have all the pets you can realistically handle, and enjoy them all, but make
>sure you are willing to take responsibilty for their safety and make
>adjustments to your lifestyle as necessary.  Don't concentrate on the
>negatives, or the "possibilities," as being forever a barrier to your ideal
>pet situation, because as I explained to cadel already, accidents are
>accidents, not probabilities.
 
Don't concentrate on the negatives, but keep them in the back of your mind.
Remember what *could* happen, and prevent it from happening before it
happens.
 
Some people can only learn from their own experiences, but other people can
learn from the experience of others... that's why I decided to share my
story about little Rocky's death.  Because I didn't want it to happen to
someone else's ferret.  And ever since I read about the little sprite (Echo)
that got stepped on and died, I decided to stop wearing my shoes in the
house, and have been alot more careful when walking backwards in the ferret
room, because I don't want my ferrets to get stepped on and die.  This is
not dwelling on the negative... haven't we shared positive, even funny,
experiences here as well?  Isn't this one of the reasons why we have the
FML--to exchange information, and to share positive and negative
experiences?
 
One viewpoint that one could take, could be: "Well, I'm not going to throw
away all my shoes just because someone's ferret got stepped on!  After all,
my feet might get cold and I could get sick, and people just can't be
expected to live without their shoes!"
 
Another viewpoint could be: "Okay, these little ferts are even more fragile
than I thought.  Someone from the FML stepped on hers, and she said that it
wasn't even stepped on very hard, and it died, so I might want to pad about
my house a little more lightly.  Or I might want to be extra aware of where
my ferrets are."
 
And yet another person's viewpoint might be: "Well, statistically speaking,
the numbers of pet ferrets that have been accidently crushed by human feet
is less than one in a thousand, so I'm not going to give this "risk" another
thought!"
 
Soooo.... I guess my point is that the world contains alot of different kind
of people, with alot of differing viewpoints, so you pick your poison.  I
mean... I mean... you make your own decisions as to what makes sense to you,
what risks you will take, with both yourself and your pets (blah blah blah)
and everyone lives happily or unhappily ever after.
 
[I think I need another cup of coffee!]
 
-cadel
[Posted in FML issue 1837]