My name is Joe Wolfe and What's My Line?  Oh..wrong program....Heh.
 
I have been an FML subscriber for 2 years now.  I joined because of my love
of all things ferrety.  Unfortunately, Reno, Nevada is rather isolated from
the mainstream of ferret activity and and such, had no idea that the list
existed until I found a ferret page on the IRC.  From there, I learned of
the FML.  I had to buy a new keyboard after joining as the keys on my
keyboard melted from the speed of submitting my request to be added to the
mailing list!
 
I have had ferrets now for 12 years.  My first was a blind albino male who
answered to the name of Bubba.  Many of you faithful readers already know
about him.  He went to work with me everyday and took great delight in
greeting each and every person who came in the store....blind he was, but he
never knew what blind was.  He was intelligent and loved to please.  He had
a number of behavioral modifications that he performed on request, about 95%
of the time.  Some of which were, talking to you.  rolling over, playing
dead, (How morbid) begging, (or sit up..he knew both requests as the same
thing) and finding and retrieving named toys.  Being blind, he depended on
his tactile senses for reassurances so was a 'lap fert' or a shoulder fert.
Well, unless it was cold, then he always rode under my sweater/sweat shirt
with his head poked out under my chin.  We were, literally, inseperable.  He
would sleep with me if my wife had permitted it, but...she drew the line
about ferts in the bedroom.  He lived to the ripe old age of 10.  One night
he was playing and carrying on in his usual fashion and the next morning, we
found him curled up in his bed, with his favorite toy in the middle, dead.
He never had a sick day in his life, and never ran down.  He was a Marshall
Farms fert.
 
Billy Bob came next, a silver.  Deaf and sweet.  He lived to 9 1/2 and
succumbed to cancer.  Garret (the ferret) was number three..and he is still
with us...6 1/2, just had major adrenal surgery where the right gland was
removed with a giant tumor.  Left was ok.  It is now a week and half, post
surgery and one would never know he was laid open.  He awoke looking for the
feed bag.  Snorkle is the new kid on the block...now 6 months old and weighs
in at 5 lbs!  Very intelligent...loves to please and already knows little
kiss, big kiss and yawn.  I am teaching him to bob for raisins...quite a
trick as he is not a raisin lover.  Bananas he loves, but the darned things
float.
 
About me...I am a geezer, three children, aged 16 (Oh excuse me H...almost
17!), 18 and 29.  I will be a grandfather come March.  I flew commercially
until 1986 when a drunk driver ended my career as a pilot.  Now I fix
computers.  My wife of nearly 30 years is a physical therapist and is a very
tolerant woman.  What with our 2800 sq.  ft house being filled with lizards
and snakes (Did I mention I am into herpetology big time?) and cats and dogs
and ferrets, she oft laments the lack of people space in the house.  Heck, I
told her that when our youngest son moves out, I will move my animals to his
room, to which she informed me (yeah right, Informed!) that that room was
hers!  I do some California rescue receiving...confiscated ferts are shipped
out of state....to me, where the owners come and pick them up and smuggle
them back to California.  I do not charge for this service.  I babysit 6
ferts on occasion, one of which I have written about a number of times here,
Crystal, a little albino female with a bit o' the devil in her.  (She knows
a mark when she see one!)
 
I would be remiss in not mentioning Bill Gruber here.  Yes, we are doing
introductions, but Bill, affectionatly known as BIG to FML readers, is the
reason the introductions are possible.  First, he is a moderator possessing
rare qualities (When was the last time YOU had to act as a neutral
arbitrator, when deep down inside you wanted to express your opinion?!!) and
secondly, he has given to us, the FML reader, a highly re-formated FML, with
none of the routing information or adressing information that most 'lists'
have.  The FML is a premier list, thanks to BIG.  THANK YOU, Bill Gruber.
The one big regret I will have at not being able to attend the 10th
anniversary get-to-gether, is that I will not be able to meet and shake the
hand of our moderator!
 
I bid all readers a very pleasant Holiday season, be it Christmas on the
25th or the 10 days of Chanukah, which started today.
 
Joe (Mustang Charlie) [The rude one]
[Posted in FML issue 2165]