Well, here it is, 4:12 AM on Wed night/Thurs morning at Zoo's Ferret
Sanctuary, First of all, Zoo and I want to thank RENEE DOWNS for making
the connection between us. Zoo and I ahave been having a wonderful time
and have formed a strong friendship. She and I (and her cool husband,
Kurt) are already planning formy 2009 return.

{HA! It is now 6:06 AM, and this CHATTY post has taken on a life of its
own. What i had meant to talk about is at the end of this email. Please
don't miss that part}

Zoo and I are still up, milking the last minutes of our vi8sit.
Tomorrow I get on the plane for PIUttsburgh. I sure do wish she
could've cometoo, but she's hell-bent o9n not leaving her furkids.
Maybe you kniow that they are mostly old and/or sick. Zoo's speciality
and heartfelt passion is taking care of these babies. I have seen her
remarkable devotion to them

Of course having this population means hearbreak as well as happiness.
Butmostly happiness, actually. Her hospice babies are so contrent
toddling around or playing and even dooking. Many of them appear to be
just fine healthy creatures -- till you feel the lumpy lymph nodes,
abdominal masses, etc. One of the first ones I saw was this big old 9
yr old boy w a major heart condition, and no sight or hearing. But
there he was tripping out on all thesmells and surfaces in the play
room! For example, Zoo'd unrolled a whole roll of paper towels for him
to play in and had scattered treats around for him to sniff out and
find.

Actually this is not one of the sacntuary's ferts--he belongs to to a
busy professional who loves him and comes to visit him often. But she
cannot monitor him as much as he needs. A few months ago he wasn't
expected to live more than a week or two, but here he is still having
a good life with Zoo -- plus he has not lost hisowner. And his owner
pays for all of his care,medical and otherwise. Plus she contributes
generously to the sanctuary.

Zoo loves this little guy -- but she seems to love all 72 of them.
Still, she loves the old guy especially. When Zoo picks up any of
them, she is tender and dear.

In the course of my visit, I have seen two crashes and recoveries, plus
another crash with an incomplete recovery -- that little old lady is
slowly swinging back up rather than suddenly returning to life. Also,
three days ago we had a bleeding-out death from an invasive tumor,

I watched Zoo with these last two girls doing everything quickly and
groundedly to ensure their freedom from pain and fear, never giving
upon the remorte possibility of bringing each back from the brink. That
is her often repeated credo and goal -- "no pain, no fear,.We don't
give up until they want to" She recovered one and lost the other.

During these two weeks I also have met maqny people here. People who
have come to visit their surrendered ferrets, others who have come for
counseling, and training, and a few who have come for services -- like
the young man who comes each 2 weeks to have his fertts' nails trimmed
aftfer he once cut a nail too close to the quick and was too horr4ified
to try it again.

I've also seen a surrender plus an assisted rehoming between two people
unbrelated toi the sanctuary.

People come long distances to get initiation and education into the
ferret world from Zoo. One nice young couple had a ferret 10 years
ago,but on adopting a new one now, came to get updated on ferret care
and learn some new tricks.

Another young man who was on the receiving end of the rehoming, brought
his two new ferrets here .for Zo9o9's assessment. These are his first
ferrets. He'd already been here to get some training before getting the
ferts, spending four hours being initiated to the world of ferts. As it
turned out, when he came back w his new ferrets -- a small girl and a
large boy -- his little girl ferret was lethargic and dehydrated.
Furthemore, sadlly,she has a heart condition. Zoo gave her subQ fluids
and the darling revived and waS soon alert, and then investigating he
room, and then playing.

The young man took her to the vet the nextd ay for a full exam.Thanks
ti o Zoo's clear but calm reaction to and explanation of his girl's
conditio9n ,he saw that the kiss of death was not on his new furGirl,
and that he would be aqle to give her a good life and she would be a
good companion to him.

One great thing about ALL (amazingly) of the visits I have seen is
seeing this exrtended fakmily of Zoo's. Even the new people who showed
up were soon acting as friends.

Of course they are a verrrrrry small number compared with the hundreds
of folks who have surrendered their ferrets,,promised to return to give
the requested 2 hours a month, but were never seen again. Still,,let's
concentrateon the good stuff here. The people I saw were great.

Ah HA, I see many typos here -- well, that's ok, Think of ithis post as
a reaLITY SHOW. It is,now 5:25 AM.

OK, back to the business at hand: Zoo has made the FIRST CONTRIBUTION
to the FIRST veterinary diagnostic laboratory in ETHIOPIA:

o A 10-second digital thermometer (far better than the 60-sec variety
for our squirmy, wiggly pets)

o A Sprague Rapport stethescope -- with a looong tube so we can reach
the business end into the cages when we have a sick or sleeping animal
we do not wish to disturb

o A wonderfukl pair of nail trimmers --by far the best that I have ever
used.

o A cash cointri8bution toward the purchase of a refurbished microscope

Of COURSE if YOU decide tio contribute a WHOLE microscope, we will use
that money toward something else.-- say towards ablood panel analyzer.
WADDYA SAY, FOLKS? HUH? WADDYA SAY.? We take PayPal!!!!

SEE SOME OF YOU TOMORROW or FRIDAY.,

And those of you who want to get a PHOTO SHOOT FOR THE PHOTO SHY, I
have good news. I believe I have a good way to give you a private
session without our having to leave the Symposium room. YES!!!

[Posted in FML 6147]