Hello all and do I have a story for you!  We just had the scariest night of
our ferret owning lives (aside from Toby's being put down, of course).
 
Around 9pm tonight, Tracy let Kodiak out to play and went to look for
Jasmin & Fritz to put them away.  (We are keeping them seperated to prevent
scabbed backs before the show in Annapolis, MD)  Anyway, Tracy put Fritz
away and squeeked and squeeked and squeeked the toy for Jasmin with no
response.  I thought that was odd, for it usually gets her up from where
ever she is sleeping.  Next step was to get the flash light and check all
the usual places.  You know, under the bed, under the dresser, etc.  The
more we looked the more worried we got.  Today is the first day since summer
started that we opened all the windows in the house.  I checked each one and
found the window where Nikita (the cat) sits had a hole in the screen.
(actually, the screen seperated from the frame) Well, you can imagine our
panic when I discovered this!  She became hysterical.  Let me remind you it
is pitch black outside and about 55-60 degrees F.  She ran out the door with
the flashlight and the squeeky toy in tears.  I TRASHED the house.  I mean
ransacked it!  This went on for eternity (about 2 hours) I ripped the
skirting off the side of our trailer and crawled under it in the mud with
the flash light.  I drove around the streets in our development.  I informed
our next door neighbors.  I thought Tracy was going to have a breakdown.  I
then, decided to print a "Lost Ferret" sign to run to Kinko's (24 hour copy
place) and put up around our area.  Just as I opened the program to make the
sign I heard Tracy scream "TOM COME QUICK!!!!" I flew out the door only to
see Tracy running down the street screaming "SOMEBODY FOUND HER!!!" over and
over and over.  We ran 1 street over and a trailer one block over had found
her.  They saw her walking on the street and put her in a cardboard box!  He
went outside to see if he could find who lost her and saw our flash lights
going up and down the street.  He asked Tracy if we lost a ferret and the
rest is history.  The wife was scared to death of Jasmin and the 5 year old
thought it was a rat.  Normally I would be insulted at a comment like that
but ,under the circumstances, I just wanted to kiss every member of that
redneck family (no offense to any rednecks reading this post)!  We went home
and checked her out.  She's fine.
 
Now that I think about it, the screen that was ripped was one of the old
ones that was dry rotted.  (It's that nylon fabric screen not the metal
stuff) Well, We are not opening any more windows until i have every one
rescreened with the metal screen!  I don't ever want to go through that
again and it was only 2 hours.  We figured she was out about 2.5-3 hours
total.  WHAT A NIGHT!!!  I just wanted to share that story with you and
remind you not to take these little ones for granted.  Some of you own so
many that it can seem like more work than anything else at times, but do me
a favor....Stop reading this letter and go kiss every ferrret you own!!!
Right now!  Well, I'll sign off now.  Hope to see some of you at the show on
SAT.  Oh, by the way, the lump on Fritz' back is gone.  It must have been
the Rabies shot.  Thanks to those that responded to that one.
 
Tom and Tracy
Fritz "Tell me all about your mission beyond the window fencing, Jasmin!"
Kodiak " I'm the one in season, I'm supposed to venture out to sow my oats!"
Jasmin " FLO member's you would have been proud of me!"
[Posted in FML issue 2075]