We have this wonderful shelter friend that lives in Camillus NY with
such a vivid imagination. Miss Mary Ellen wrote this piece and sent
it to us this morning in honor of Election Day.

It's too bad Ferrets can't vote. Shelter Mum would need to borrow the
big yellow thingy to get everybody to the polling place.

Ferret voting would be fun to watch! First of all, Shelter Mum would
pull up to the polling place with all her fur kids jumping up and
down with excitement that they are here and they get to vote now!

As Shelter Mum opens the door, all her fur kids go piling off the bus.
Shelter Mum calls out to them to line up alphabetically once they get
inside and not to do a thing until she gets there.

Shelter Mum steps inside the polling place to see all her kids lined
up nice and straight. She pulls out the name cards and starts to give
a name card to each ferret. Ally is first, then Avery, then Bear III,
then Big Foot, then Bruno and so on up the line.

Ally goes up a small wire ladder hooked up to the front of the table
to the nice election lady and places his name card down on the table.
The nice election lady then looks up Ally's name and photo in the big
election book. Once Ally is located and his ID verified, he presses his
little paw into an ink pad and "signs" his name by pressing his paw
print into the election book right next to all the other paw prints
he had made over the years when he signed in to vote in the past.

Ally then goes down another wire ladder hooked up to the side of the
sign-in table and makes his way up another wire ladder to the voting
machine. Another nice election lady guides Ally as he votes for his
favorites on the ticket and for the various other candidates running
that year. At last, the voting machine confirms that Ally votes have
been registered and weasel happy dancing ensues!!!

Shelter Mum congratulates Ally and then instructs him that since he is
now done voting, please go back and wait on the bus for everyone else
to finish.

So the day goes on. Each of Shelter Mum's ferrets signing in to vote,
voting, dancing and then back to the bus to wait for the trip home.
Finally Shelter Mum, herself, votes and heads back to the bus to drive
everyone back to the Shelter. Once on board, she finds she has to
break up a major wrestling match. It seems Pickles voted for different
favorites on the ticket and this is not sitting well with his fellow
fuzzbutts. See if anybody shares their treats with him for the next
month.

After a stern lecture from Shelter Mum about the beauty of these United
States is the freedom we all have to make whatever choices we want
without being punished for them, the fuzzies all ride home in silence.
Once home, Shelter Mum has to scooch everyone off the bus in a hurry
because she has to go back to Naples and make the afternoon run for
all the 2 legged furless kids.

While Shelter Mum is away, one by one, the sweet ferrets all come up
to Pickles and apologize for giving him a hard time about his choice.
Shelter Mum is right. In this country we are free to make our choice
from multiple options. It's wrong to punish someone because they were
given a choice and made the choice different from everyone else. All
the other fur kids come up to Pickles and begin to share their treats
with him again. MEB

<http://www.ferretfarm.org>

[Posted in FML 7603]