[Moderator's note: This is the last post in this digest and is about 200
lines long.  BIG]
 
HI GUYS,
Well I have given David since the 15th of this month to write a story about
this but I have now given up on him and am writing it myself!  Have any of
you seen the movie "Baby's Day Out"?  Well other than the beginning which
has the baby being kidnapped by these creeps our story is very similar.  I
start by replacing the baby's name BINK with the now infamous name ROWDY
and awaaaaaay we go!
Picture if you will a young woman sitting at her computer typing away,
fuzzy bells jingling all over the room as the four-legged curiosity
machines are running on overdrive!  Several hours go by and the room is now
silent and the young woman has noticed many a fuzzy creature as they had
returned to the rest of the house.  It is now four to five a.m.  and she is
sooooo tired and in pain and wants to go lay down on the couch and watch
t.v.  losing herself in the storyline.  Before leaving the room she calls
for any stray fuzzies and looks around but finds none so she moves the
heavy box of sand from in front of the doggie door so the muttley's can
come and go as they please.  Two hours pass and the young woman has fallen
asleep on the couch.  Her fiance gets up to prepare for work and at 7:30
a.m.  he wakes her to ask where ROWDY is since he has gathered up all the
fuzzies and put them in their cage for the day.  She is dead tired and
snaps at him that the fuzzy is in the house right where she belongs of
course!  He continues searching and suddenly the young woman feels the fear
as it grips her heart as a vice would grip an egg!  She too has been
searching for the ROWDSTER and seems to know in her heart that she is
GONE!!!!  Panic takes control of her as she remembers the doggie door is
totally accessable!  She runs for the computer room searching EVERYWHERE
and no ROWDY!  She runs out the door and systematically starts searching
around the house and then in a larger circle until the entire property has
been combed with no sign of ROWDY!  Oh God, she thinks, the MAIN road at
the front of the house!  She and her fiance check the street expecting the
worst but find no sign of her.  Thankyou God!  They go back into the house
to search again and the fiance calls his work to tell them he cannot come
in.  He refuses to leave until he finds the baby one way or the other!  The
young woman is hysterical at this point and cannot stop crying but
unfortunately she had taken her sleeping medication much earlier and simply
cannot overcome the effects and stay awake.  She tells her fiance that she
is going to lie down in the bedroom and listen for Rowdy's bells (in her
heart she knows she may never hear them again)!  She fights to stay awake
but loses the battle having extreme nitemares the entire time she sleeps.
The fiance continues to search.  He takes Shyla with him all around the
neighborhood to tell people ROWDY is lost and please look for her and help
her.  Shyla is the sweet, loving fuzzy example for those who know not what
a ferret is or might think they are icky or something.  Most all the people
are very kind and say they will watch for her and call.  One ^#%$# neighbor
next door has a new large puppy she keeps outside but instead of offering
to put her up she only says "Gee, I hope my dog doesn't get her and kill
her!", When the young woman hears this later she says to her fiance "Gee, I
hope I don't accidentally pull my gun and shot the
^&*%^@#$*(&*(*%^%#^_&*(%^&!"!!!!!!!!  The wonderful neighbor behind who has
hunting dogs puts them in the house immediately and says he will keep them
there until the ROWDSTER is found.  When the young woman awakens she enters
the living room and cannot figure out where all the fuzzies are, she goes
into the computer room and sees her fiance and says "What are you doing
home"?  He looks at her in the oddest way and suddenly ALL the blocked
memories come flooding back and she runs for the bedroom sobbing
hysterically again!  She has already branded herself a fuzzy killer knowing
in her soul that ROWDY is dead and she will never see her again!!!!!!  Her
fiance comforts her as best he can with no results.  He tells her he will
never in his entire life forget the look on her face when the memories came
flooding back!  She heads for the back door to search the entire
neighborhood again and he accompanies her.  They talk to everyone they pass
and she is wearing a ferret shirt so they will know what ROWDY looks like!
They search every woodpile and crevice they can find, calling to her and
whistling and etc...  No luck, ROWDY is nowhere to be found.  Her fiance
had put the travel cage out back with all the other fuzzies in it hoping
the bells will bring Rowdy home but still no fuzzy!  As they finish their
search they take all the babies inside and the fiance notices a message on
the phone.  The young woman runs for the answering machine playing the
message.  "Hi my name is Julie and I found your ferret this morning and she
is safe and sound at my house!!!!!!!!" The young woman screams in delight
and the fiance is dialing the phone as fast as humanly possible to get
directions to the lady's house.  Come to find she lives approx. 2 blocks
away directly across the busy street out front!  Off they go to collect
their ROWDY baby!!
They get lost and stop at a convenience store to call for directions again.
As the young woman pulls up behing this truck waiting to pull out into the
street suddenly he changes gears and backs right into the front of her car.
She freaks!  He asks her to come to his work office but she explains about
her lost child and says as soon as they pick her up they will come by.  Her
car means absolutely nothing to her at this point, only her baby is
important and she comes first no matter what!  They find the house of the
rescue angel Julie and jump out running as they hit the pavement.  The
ROWDSTER is in a small carrying cage on the front porch and the young woman
nearly rips off the door to get to her!  She cuddles her baby close and is
crying and thanking Julie profusely!!  She offers Julie $20 as a reward but
she refuses it and says just to see us reunited is enough for her!!!!  She
hands the baby to her fiance to love for a bit.  Julie was wonderful!  She
told us she had found Rowdy at 7am that morning because when she went out
front to get her paper she saw these two really big dogs trying to attack
something and she thought it was a kitten and was determined to save it.
She chased the dogs away and saw ROWDY!  Shocked her, she had heard bite
stories about ferrets but that did not stop her for even a second in
rescuing ROWDY!  Of couse it really helped when ROWDY walked right up to her
and started kissing her hand.  Julie fell in love and her neighbors told her
if she couldn't find the owners several of them would love to have her.
Unfortunately Julie did not think to check the collar for a tag and took off
for work.  Once there she realized her mistake.  As soon as she got home she
checked the tag and found the name ROWDY and our phone # engraved there.  It
was probably 4pm when she finally called.  I have never prayed for a phone
call so hard in my life and for once my prayers were answered.  I know all
of you can imagine how you would feel if you were the cause of one of your
fuzzie's deaths.  I was sure I was a ferret killer as of that morning and I
would NEVER have forgiven myself even after I had died!!!!  We were sooooooo
lucky that day because everything fell into place like clockwork.  First she
decided to go on her adventure so early that there was no traffic and that
is why she was not roadmush.  Second it was very cool that day even though
it had been stifling hot the earlier part of the week.  Third the one to go
adventuring was our toughest ferret, the leader of the gang!  Fourth she
managed to not get eaten as a doggie breakfast.  Fifth she was at the right
place at the right time when Julie went out to get her paper.  Sixth Julie
really cared, she even called a vet to find out what to feed her and how to
care for her properly!  Seventh David had called in a lost ad to be in the
next days paper and he was even able to cancel the ad in time w/no charge
when Julie called us!  Eighth the ding a ling that backed into me did do
$900 worth of damage but nothing serious enough that we couldn't still use
the car to go get her.  Of course we would have WALKED 100 MILES if
necessary to get our baby back safe and sound.  NINTH and MOST IMPORTANT:
HALIE was watching over ROWDY yet again and saved her life and mine!!!
Thank you Halie!!!!!  WE LOVE YOU AS ONE OF OUR OWN!!!!  Also thank you to
Sheena and Rudy for your support during this MOST horrible time!!!!!  We
really needed you and David would have had to deal with it all alone while I
was asleep if you hadn't been there for him.  YOU ARE TRUE FRIENDS AND WE
LOVE YOU TOO!!!!!!!!  Last but not least PLEASE everyone get ID tags on your
babies.  If not for that we probably would never had gotten the ROWDSTER
back and would have considered her dead!  This is THE most important gift
you can give to your fuzzies.  All the toys in the world cannot replace the
wonderful loving home that they have.  DO NOT say this can NEVER happen to
you because that is what WE said too and look what happened!!!!!!!!  Well
thank you all for reading this and to those that lose their babies DO NOT
GIVE UP!!!!!!!!  You can be the lucky ones too!!!  I will always feel
responsible even more for ROWDY'S life and happiness in the future and will
always be there for her to ensure her safety.  I owe Julie soooooo much!!!!
I bought her a personalized card thanking her for her hospitality that had a
castle on the front that we named Critter Castle.  Inside it said, "You have
given us back a piece of our heart and soul!  There is no more precious gift
than the return of our ROWDY.
Ferret kisses to all,
Kelleen, David and ROWDY!"
I felt it was the least I could do since she refused my reward offer!  Our
babies are no longer allowed in the computer room for their own safety and
the safety of my mental and physical health!!!!!!  David was the most
wonderful love I could have imagined.  No yelling or accusing only his
trying to comfort me.  He knew I was punishing myself more than anyone else
possibly could.  At first I had wished that Julie had noticed the collar
right away and called but now I am glad that she didn't!!  We went through
the most total hell that day and would never want to relive it but that
hell taught us the MOST important lesson of our lives (and our fuzzies
lives)!!!!!  Had she called us right away we wouldn't even had known that
ROWDY was gone yet and it would have been soooooo miraculously easy that
I'm really not sure we would have thoroughly learned this lesson!  I thank
all involved every day of my life each time I see ROWDY and I will never
forget this!!!  It has been extremely hard to write this story for all of
you because I have cried all the way through it reliving each bit of it!  I
did it because I feel it is most important for people to hear stories like
this so hopefully they won't have to learn this lesson the hard way
too!!!!!  EXTRA FUZZY KISSES TO : HALIE, SHEENA, RUDY AND JULIE THE RESCUE
ANGEL W/NO FEAR OF GETTING INVOLVED!!!!!!
 
Fuzzy kisses too all the rest of you from Kelleen, David and the INSANE
Animal House!!!!!!! (now you know why we are named that)
Kelleen : "I am a MOST blessed mother"
David : "NEVER GIVE UP"
Rascal : Mommy one of my babies is missing!!!!!!
Silly : How come SHE got to go on an adventure mom??????
Moneybags : They drive me nuts but I love them too mom!!!!
Shyla :  Mommy where is my sissy?????
Precious : Who am I supposed to have dominance fights with now mom??????
Meetoo :  Kiss, Chomp, BITE!!  I'll distract you mom!!!!!!
The New FANG : Mommy get ROWDY back NOW and stop all this crying please!!!!
Silverada : Halie you sure got a full time job now don't you???
ROWDSTER : Gee mom what's a matter????  That was THE MOST fun, can I do it
again???? Gurgle Gurgle (as mom wrings her little neck!!!!!!!!;)   NEVER
AGAIN ROWDY!!!!!!!!
 
One last thing to the girl who recently thought she was such a horrible
mother!!!!!  " You would only be a horrible mother if you hadn't cared about
what happened and thought you WEREN'T a horrible mother.  All mothers blame
themselves when something bad happens to the children they love and are
responsible for"!!!!!!!!!!!
[Posted in FML issue 1300]