One of my sisters is a veterinarian.  JUST this afternoon, she came in with
her kids on the airplane, in the process of moving cross country to settle
down in Klamath Falls.  (Her husband had driven out with a big truck of
stuff a few weeks previously.)
 
Anyway...she was very interested to find out that I have adopted some
ferrets, as she's had all the school larning on them but has never had one
for a patient.  She and I spent quite a while talking about them and I let
her get several good whiffs of a harness I'd brought along.  (She is the
reason I asked about allergies; she has a lot of allergies and has to wear
a mask when she treats hamsters.  The last time she didn't, she wound up in
the E.R.!)
 
This afternoon I watched my copy of the movie "The Secret Garden" with her
and her two young children.  My other sister is going to drive them down to
Klamath Falls tomorrow, and we were all in "vege" mode.  So at one point I
get up to go find a bandaid for the 4-year-old (she kept ripping them off
and wanting another) when all of the sudden, shouts erupt from the TV room.
"Ferret!  Ferret!  Auntie Megan, there's a ferret!" I stumbled across a few
suitcases in my haste, but was too late, so they rewound it for me.  And
sure enough!!!  "It *IS* a ferret!!!" I exclaimed, as a tiny light-colored
wedge-shaped, adorable face with an unmistakable mask poked into view from
the upper-righthand corner of the screen, in a scene where Dicken (the
younger brother of Martha) is showing Mary how to plant some seeds.  It's a
closeup of the opened soil, focussing on the seeds dropping down, or some
such...when suddenly: Peek Peek *Vanish!*
 
It was adorable.  It was a very lightcolored animal, and the top of its head
was NOT darker, that I saw, though it was only visible for a few moments and
none of the body could be seen.  It looked like a creamy-colored critter
with a delicately darker V-shaped mask and dark eyes.  I have no idea what a
wild polecat looks like...but I assume it must have been a silver, pale
cinnamon, or DEW patterned ferret, maybe?  Anyway, very cute.
 
I was very amused to have a ferret show up in the film, after my sister and
I'd spent so much time discussing them an hour or two earlier.  The kids
thought it was cool, too; they'd met ferrets before.  Before the movie,
the 4yo insisted on buckling the ferret harness around her wrist and her
brother was leading her around on the leash and calling her "Sparkles"
 hile she made assorted animal noises.  Mostly barks, not dooks, but...
still.  :-)
 
- Megan
--
Megan O'Shaughnessy DC, and Grover and Onyx!
http://www.teleport.com/~megan/
[Posted in FML issue 2436]