I caught the spleenectomy on Animal Planet.  Pretty interesting - the gas
mask was huge for the ferret and covered most of his head (his head was
entirely in this funnel thing up to his ears), it seemed a fairly small
incision and I was sort of shocked the way the Dr. stuck his finger in and
started....just smooshing it around and around.  Yikes!  He then gets a few
more fingers in there and starts pulling out this organ that he proclaimed
"huge, I've seen dog spleens that were smaller" (never having seen a spleen
before I had to take his word:)  It was so big and engorged with blood they
had to shrink it because if they just cut it off the ferret wouldn't have
had enough blood left.  So they squirted something on it (adrenal something?
a steriod of some type?) and it became the amazing shrinking spleen right
before your eyes!  They then cut it off and it was over.  The thing that got
me though is the woman who narrates this regular show (one of the Vet ones I
forget) asked the owner who was in watching the surgery something to the
effect - why are you spending all this money on a ferret (put nicer of
course) and what do you say to your family and friends about it?  Sheesh -
this is a gooshy animal show and somehow ferrets don't quite rate!  The
women just quietly replied that if you have an animal your responsible for
it.  In the end the cute sable went home with some stitches and seemed ok.
 
As for shelter polices that do a lot of asking - I applaud it.  I've done
very little rescue and already had some bad experiences with people who want
ferrets - the more research the better.  It may be a little intrusive (big
deal) but there are good reasons so suck it up.  It would have been more
reasonable to work something out with Ed up front - hey we understand you
want to make sure but we don't want to become part of your extended family
so is X number of calls and visits with X number of hours notice ok?
 
As for Seattle, I wish I weren't serious but I think there's some room for
some heavy duty chlorine in the human gene pool.  At the very least this
woman should get the police to put a restraining order on this kid for her
own safety.  She should also sue him for costs (there's no monetary value
you can place on these little lives and this kind of torture but I'd do it
just to go for him somehow) Maybe one of the larger animal welfare
organizations will help?  If she got a positive ruling and/or he broke the
restraining order at least that might get him a little jail time.  In my
fantasy I invest in a few baseball bats and invite some friends and him over
to "make up".
 
Yes I'm mad and I'm not going to apologize because I'm tired of the way sick
people make me feel ill.  Mary, Giesela and Boris and Booker the rescue dog
 
P.S.  Giesela has for the first time put on weight this winter - I love it!
She has the "X" in her ear so I guess she's a Maple Leaf fan.  Her coat has
never been long or thick but right now she is the softest ferret I've ever
felt!  Lately I've caught her licking the butter I have out - I wonder is
this part of it?  Boris is such a treat hound and begs and begs for cat food
(high quality that I dole out a bit at a time but I wish he'd eat more of
his TF), ferret bites, dog biscuits and the apparently WONDERFUL dog food.
So needless to say he has not put on weight.  Its so weird how Boris and
Giesela are like night and day:)
[Posted in FML issue 2144]