HI--
 
Kim Wolf, her son Todd, and I drove to Cincinnati, to the Ferret
Extravaganza.  We didn't have ferrets to show.  We had good intentions of
working the Heart of Ohio Ferret Table, but didn't do that either.  We
did accomplish our mission of going to buy ferret stuff and hanging out.
Didn't get to put too many more faces to names from FOBFerrets, FML or
APF.
 
Anyone who wants to know show results, sorry, I didn't check them out.
We cooed over the ferrets, but didn't handle anybody's.
 
My primary mission was to shop.  Which I did.  I came home with a
Marshall's Ferret teaser.  It's supposed to last longer than a cat teaser.
Cat teaser's have a life 1/4 to 1/2 hr in my house.  I was told to buy a
child's fishing pole, a heavy duty dog toy and use that if I planned to go
"fishing for ferrets".  (Sold the kid's fishing pole in the yard sale last
summer.  Damn!).  Cheweasels the treat of choice for discerning ferrets.
Most of my ferrets fight over them and hide them.  Only the kits (have no
kits) really like to eat them.  N-bones are loved by the dog and weasels
alike.  Those I have to cut up or hide, or the entire package would be
gone in an hour.  The dog will take the nbones right out of the ferrets
mouths if she can get away with it.  Hammocks from Kathy Schradin at
Ferret Wares.  I have hammocks from half a dozen different folks at shows
and in Columbus.  Kathy's are as close to indestructible as hammocks get.
I still have some from 4 yrs ago that are usable.  The only downside to
her hammocks is the fact they aarent' big enough to hold six large
ferrets.  Good enough for 4.
 
Kritter Concepts has a retrofit for the Midwest cage, my cage of choice
and the ones we standardized on years ago.  All of adaptations are
homemade based on advice from an Internet site and posts to the FML.
These folks have something that is near perfect.  A full floor with a trap
door that allows the cage to be divided in two or one big cage.  No more
shelves, wood floors with tile, wire covered in carpet runner etc.  There
are two more identical shelves.  Each one runs the length of the cage and
has a ramp.  The two shelves are identical.  One goes on the second story
and the other goes above the first floor.  It is placed the ferret going
in and out of the trap door has a shelf to climb down to and can't fall
and hurt himself.  Someone spent about 15 minutes showing me everything I
needed to know.  I wrote a check and asked them to ship me one in two
weeks.  I have 9 Midwest cages and 22 ferrets, so I'll be buying about 1
per month.
 
Kim said she was only planning to look.  Our first stop was Jean's table,
Ferrets Unlimited, Cleveland, OH.  Kim put in about $5 to the egg draw
and won one or two of the large baskets on the table.  She put money in
several other raffles and one some neat stuff.  I think she came home
with more stuff than I did.  At one point we were teasing her and yelling
"Witch!  Witch!  You were casting spells".  She was having a good day and
drawing the good prices.
 
Kim tells me I missed meeting Kat Parsons who was working at Jean's table.
I spoke to someone who remembers me from the Michigan shows 4 yrs ago, who
I "knew" but had no clue who she was until she gave me her name.  (Serious
case of brain fog in 2000 due to sleeping the year away because of having
a severe case of anemia.)
 
Kim helped with some stewarding to one of the judges she knew.
 
Todd hung out with his friend Wesley and we grabbed him up shortly before
I left.
 
Kim, Todd and I were sprayed down with Rocal, my car interior was sprayed
down and teh exterior of all the packges we had were sprayed down.  The
wind was blowing and we sprayed some hotel guest down too.  Told him he
wouldn't be getting parvo.
 
Home again to a night of TV.
 
I know most people are taking a holiday tomorrow.  I'll be putting a
couple hours with a client.
 
Got my new furbaby today.  I'm so excited.  Progress reports on FOBFerrets
only where we only sometimes remember to talk about ferrets.
 
KG
[Posted in FML issue 3795]