Boy, what a scare!  I came home Monday night kinda late, so I headed
straight for the kitchen to start dinner.  My hearing dog came in to alert
me to the doorbell.  I was feeling a little annoyed figuring it was one of
my kids friends' - they always seem to appear when I'm in the middle of
something!  The first thing I see is a carrier outside, then I see it
contains a ferret!  You know how thoughts rush through your mind in a
nanosecond?  Well, my first thought was that someone had found a ferret and
brought it to me because they knew I had one.  The next fraction of a second
I knew it *was my ferret*!.  Then I saw my next-door neighbor standing off
to the side of the door and I wondered why my kids had left Jester with her?
Then she told me that another woman had found Jester in the *street* on the
other side of her house (she lives on a corner, us one over from her)!!
This woman (I don't know where she lives exactly - my neighbor only knew
her first name) had picked Jester up and I guess taken him to her house??
Anyway, she had mentioned to my neighbor that she "found a wild animal"
that she thought had been hit by a car (Jester is paralyzed in his left
rear leg).  My neighbor is an animal-lover so she went to go look at this
"wild animal" and immediately recognized it to be Jester.  She took him
home with her and kept him in her cat carrier.  I *still* don't know how he
got loose, but I suspect it was from one of my son's friends.  He probably
didn't bother looking when he went out of the house to make sure the door
closed behind him.  I've instructed the kids (and *whenever* possible, I'll
do it myself!) that when one of their friends comes in or out, they must be
escorted by one of us!  I know that if there is a next-time, I might not be
so lucky!!  As it was, Jester had a couple of scrapes - since he can't walk
on all fours, he drags his left rear leg along... being on the cement left
him with a scraped knee and foot (thankfully, both are healing up nicely
though)!
 
I took my neighbor a nice big batch of brownies as a thank you!
 
BTW, after my neighbor had spent a couple of hours with Jester, she said she
understood why I was so taken with him - she said he's a real sweetie
(another one bitten by the "ferret bug" <G>).
 
===
Kat & Jester (two lucky and grateful friends!)
[Posted in FML issue 2343]