Dear Sara Ferret
 
I really miss Maria.  I found her beiing burnt alive in a pet store
window in 90 degree heat.  Some children told me about this monster
creature at the pet store.  I went to see it.
 
She had no fur.  Her skin was purple, scarred, and blistered.  Fleas
crawled on her naked body.  The water bottle in her cage had a broken
metal connector, so no water could get to her dehydrated body.  There
was no air conditioner on.  It had to be at least 80 degrees in the store
in this window.  Nothing covered the metal cage.
 
When I asked the pet store owner about her, he said she was going to die
soon, so not to worry.  There was a large appendage jutting out of her.
It was so big, it was part of what made her look like a monstrosity to
the children.
 
The pet store was closed down.  And the ferret I named Maria underwent a
lot of vet care and home care.  Her fur grew back over her tiny body that
had been severely malnourished, bitten, and burnt, according to the vets.
 
Please ask her how she is.  I miss her.She died last Febuary.  Nothing
has been the same since.
 
She ran to the door every night I came home...every night.  I could not
wait to open up the door and pick up her stunted tiny body in my hand...
She grew her fur back and was such a beauty..and forever looked like a
baby ferret, with a head almost as big as her stunted tiny body.
 
I thought about her driving home, and I smiled.  I was going home to tiny
Maria and the others...but Maria stole my heart.
 
How is she doing? Does she know I think about her?
 
Please tell her I miss her, and that I wish some people could not be so
cruel and barbaric and stupid.  I am so sorry for all she must have
suffered.
 
But that I am so grateful to have met her and cared for her.  She melted
my heart.
 
Thank you
Lisette
[Posted in FML issue 4748]