Bonnie may NOT have caused the ferret's death.  While it is possible that a
chunk of candy cane caused choking, candy tends to dissolve rather well
and be rather slippery in the body so it can be up-chucked better than
some other things can.  (Chokings with candy DO happen but with humans 95%
of causes are meat caused, with 95% of the remaining 5% being nut-butter
caused -- just the weird sort of thing one learns with relatives by
marriage having esophogeal constrictions.) It would have made sense to have
a post-mortem done on the ferret; such autopsies SHOULD be routine when a
mysterious death occurs because they can help prevent future deaths.
 
Sponges in and of themselves can cause dangers, whether the contents are a
danger or not.  Something like 14 or 15 years ago Fritter (then a kit) got
a hold of a sponge.  The contents were not a problem, but she swallowed
some sponge, vomited, and then inhaled the bollus (which is why you should
head for the hospital and never should do the Heimlich on someone who can
speak since the airway's clear but there is likely something stuck in the
esophagus which you might relocated to a worse place).  I had to do
cheek-puff artificial respiration to nose and mouth for her and it worked.
She went on to live to be almost 7 before dying of lympho and insulinoma in
combination.
 
Steve came up with Glueball's name.  She was about the clingiest ferret
imaginable.
 
Some people enjoyed the rap and wanted to use it, but it's been pointed out
to me that one stanza isn't clear enough so here are two alternatives:
 
"We carry disease and we snarf up babies
Say illiterate folks who can't CompRendium rabies."
 
or for those who in some way think that a bi-lingual pun indicates an
implication that those with better language skills in more languages than
I have are ignorant or illiterate:
 
"We carry disease and we snarf up babies
Say illiterate folks who don't Compendium rabies.".
 
Sukie
[Posted in FML issue 2534]