It's been a while since I posted.  Seemed for two years all I did was
post when we lost one of our furkids.  It got so I didn't have the heart
to write about another loss, although I know the ones who left us last
year, and my Haldir last month, do deserve for you all to know them.
Eventually I'll write.  To all who've lost their beloved fur kids, my
heartfelt sympathy.
 
I saw the posts on 3/25 about ferret dolls, and have to share this.  Our
Spunky had a blue beanie bunny.  Wasn't a Beanie Baby, but was a toy I'd
found after Easter.  It was half his size, but he loved it.  He'd carry
it around, take it to the top of our big cage, tuck it in and sleep
beside it.  At this time Jill and Joy were alive-both DEWs, both in his
cage.  They loved to steal his bunny, take off with it and hide it.
Unfortunately for them, Spunky rarely left the bunny, and you'd see him
streaking after them.  One other thing about Spunky-he had three legs.
As a baby his breeder had kept the kits and mom outside, and a feral
cat ripped his left hind leg off, his brother's left front.  A shelter
rescued them,a nd I met him as they came back from the show in Ohio,
bringing me Joy, whome Judy Cooke asked me to take in.  This was back
in 2000.
 
Anyway, here's Spunky, streaking along, little stump thumping, but he'd
catch them, get the bunny, take it back and hide it.  This could happen
all day or evening, depending on their time out to play.  I'd get to the
point where I'd take it away from the girls and make sure he had it.  We
lost Jilly before we moved to Fort Wayne, and it became Joy's mission in
life to harass Spunky on her own.  After we moved to our house, you'd
hear thundering coming down the stairs, and there would be Joy, bunny
in her mouth, Spunky almost on top of her to stop her.  One day Muggles
jumped on Spunky to slow him down!  I knew something was wrong with
Spunky when one day Joy stole his bunny and he didn't go after it.  We
then found his lymphoma, and lost him shortly thereafter.  I washed his
bunny, and it holds his pouch of ashes in the memory box-no other ferret
was ever allowed to play with it again.
 
On the bird flu.  I don't know if it can transmit to other animals, but
I know there's been this huge debate on it arriving here.  Personally, I
think it's already been here.  I grew up in Lafayette, Indiana, and the
park there has a huge lagoon with wild and tame geese, swans, ducks of
all sorts.  One year the birds 'suddenly became ill', began dying, and
they had to put them all down, drain the lagoon, restock it with fish.
No explanation other than it was a bird disease.  Now that bird flu has
become worldwide, I've begun to wonder if that's what this was.
 
Rebecca and the Crew of Merry Mayhem
 
"Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste
good with ketchup"
"Support bacteria, it's the only culture some people have"
[Posted in FML issue 5193]