Hi gang . . .
 
Well, my zoo crew is busy, busy, busy.
 
I have two Princess stories, today . . . a few days ago I was reading Anne
Rice's new novel, Violin (no opinion, as of yet) when Princess climbed into
my sweatshirt.  I was a tad nervous, as I was just lounging around so far
that day, and had nothing on under my sweat shirt.  She investigated,
sniffed, tickled me with her whiskers and cold nose, spent a few minutes
scatching at the inside of the shirt, and finally curled up and went to
sleep.  I sat there feeling so warm and snug and *special* that my little
fuzzie girl wanted to nap so close to me.  Unfortunately, I was drinking
coffee and too soon could not wait to whiz any longer, so I had to disturb
her.  Sigh.
 
Now, one little quickie--Princess will not eat raisins, she will not eat
craisins, she will not eat anything but ferret food, dog food and Linatone.
Well, that is, until she discovered Fortune Cookies.  Loves them.  Nibbling
on a fortune cookie can keep her happy for long MINUTES at a time--and by
that I mean even up to 1/2 an hour.  And before the nibbling, she will spend
upwards of 10 minutes working to get the little fortuen cookie package open.
Anyone else's fuzzies have an appetite for these?
 
Finally--YEA WISCONSIN!!
 
My number 1 ferret, Smokey, was seized by animal control two years ago after
a very traumatic multiple bite incident.  Something happened that caused
this darling little albino girl to bite a child 15 times in the space of a
few minutes in the middle of the night.  We don't know if Smokey was trying
to wake up Samantha to play, or if Sam hurt the ferret somehow in her sleep,
or what the heck happened--but it was horrible, and tragic and sad.  The
little girl (my best friend's daughter--whom my ferrets lived with
temporarily) had to go to the emergency room, whereas the Dr called animal
control, whereas the ferrets were picked up under WI kill and test policy
and done in.  Don't flame me.  I did not fight the policy because I love
this child, and the parents were freaked out because the ferret was acting
very, very strangely, not at all like herself, and was waaay overdue on
vaccinations--and therefore we very seriousely had to put the well-being of
the child first.  They lived in a housing project with very possible
exposure to rats, and none of us knew much about rabies.  I loved those
fuzzies.  It breaks my heart what happened to them, but the ferrets were not
in my care and therefore I was unable to know what they might have been
exposed to.  I could not say with 100% conviction (as I *can* with my
current crew) that the possibility of rabies was very low to non-existent.
Now I know more, and now I would fight.  RIP Smokey and Whiskey, we live and
learn and I loved you much.
 
Anyway, Yea WI.  On the ball.  I feel even more confident about bringing my
fuzzies out and about.  Not that the past ever stopped me anyway, but even
so . . .
 
--Sheri
 
"Until our paths find us together
        may you forever
         go in peace."
--Mike Rayburn (comic entertainer and acoustic rock artist)
[Posted in FML issue 2156]