I have to admit that after the first splash in the local paper about
ferrets being legalized here in the great state of California, I kinda
lost track of progress; something about the bill being postponed for a
year or so.  I'm not sure.
 
How paranoid should I (or more correctly my daughter) be about the legal
status of ferrets in California.  My daughter owns hers quite openly,
taking him just about everywhere:  the mall shopping, coffee houses, for
walks, et cetera.  No ones seems to care, though they certainly do
notice.
 
A few weeks ago my daughter took Albert with her to the library.  She
left him curled up in the back seat of the car while she ran inside.
When she came out, Albert was gone.  We still haven't figured out how he
escaped from a nearly air-tight VW.
 
She immediately plastered flyers on every utility pole in sight.  The next
day she put an ad in the local paper offering a reward.  Interestingly
enough her ad appeared along with another "lost ferret" ad.
 
Fortunately she got Albert back; no calls from the humane society or the
"ferret police".  This law doesn't seem to be enforced here in the south
San Francisco Bay area.  I wonder how vigorously it's enforced elsewhere
in the state.  According to the article in the paper about the law being
proposed to legalize ferrets here, there are 250,000+ pet ferrets in
California.  If that number is even close to being accurate, it's
difficult to see how the current law can be enforced.
 
-cobra
 
P.S.  Can anyone provide a list of vets in the Santa Clara/San Jose area
      willing to take on one of these wiener rats?  If you can, post to the
      FML (if that's the proper way to do it, I'm new to the list) and I'll
      try to get in contact with you privately.  Thanks in advance.
 
[Posted in FML issue 0819]