One of the greatest things our ferrets teach us is to have Joy, to be
joyfull in your life.  They remind us that even the shortest-lived lives
are, indeed worth living, and that we should embrace the Joy in every
moment we have.  Here is a quality of living which our non-human fellow
beings can teach us.  For you see it is natural for them to express joy
with all their beings while they are in the world and know the caring of
even any other creature, whether it be an other of their species or not,
as yet another point of accepting Joy that our ferrets daily teach us.  .
 
The young of every cognizant species will dance each in their ways for
sheer joy.  Birds dance on wing in the air, a sea-turtle baby will do
happy flips in the water, and we have seen nearly every manner of
four-legged young creature leap and dance and play...and our dear and
beloved ferrets, they bring this Joy though the literal and entire span
of their lives, every single day of it...whether they make it to 7 with
many cancers, even insulinomas, or had made it to 13-plus like old Farley
the Mouser Ferret did, and still played and even tried to "dance" right
up to the very last.
 
So that we who accept responsibility for some of these fellow creatures'
lives to share space with our own ( whether as pets, in farming or
zookeeping husbandry, or as shelter or sanctuary care-persons) the
animals and birds each teach us, all over again...Joy!  Be joyful in your
living, and spread this to others.
 
This they do!, teaching us, all over again, and daily; for although
we may be in some ways smarter, they are all our elders,(even the
shortest-lived) and far wiser.
 
So here is their lesson to us, every day, not just at some particular
season, nor just on certain days...Every day!, Rejoice and be Glad!  Be
Joyful in your life and have joy in each day of your beloved ferrets'
lives, for this day, Each day is the gift you are giving one another!
 
{ By ((grateful for the lives of each and every furred or feathered
critter!))
Susie Lee of the Ferret & Dove Sanctuary, Inc.
http://www.angelfire.com/theforce/ferret_rescuer/index.html
[Posted in FML issue 4368]