Hello everyone,
I just have a cute little story I'd like to share....
 
I have 8 ferrets who finally got their own room.  Well, it isn't really
their own room, there's a few other things in there.  My husband kept his
bookcases in there since there wasn't much room to put them anywhere else.
I ferret-proofed them the best I could, despite the fact that he wouldn't
let me through anything away.  So I arranged everything the best I could,
and the ferrets never really bothered with the bookcases.  Except for one: a
silvermitt named Devil's Little Angel.  She *loves* to get into stuff and I
probably should be a little more careful.  Once in a while I saw she chewed
part of the nose off a bear, another time she ate some paper, things like
that.
 
One night I came home after being out all day.  I checked on my kids, and
sure enough, Angel found something to entertain herself.  She was sleeping
on a pile of silk roses.  It was so cute, I ran to get a camera even though
I was mad she was on top of the bookcases (she's the only one who can get up
there).  When I came back I realized I had a ferret crisis on my hands, but
with a different ferret.  After that seemed somewhat resolved, I checked out
Angel because she did't seem to be acting right.  I thought maybe she was
sick.  When I checked her toosh, not only was her bottom messy but it was
bloody.  Shortly after that I went to the emergency animal hospital,
fearfull that my baby was in serious trouble.  The whole drive over there I
kept scolding myself, just knowing that her being sick was my fault for
leaving things for her to get into.  The vet said that she was probably
stressed by whatever was in her system since she occasionally gets into
stuff.  "Yeah, and I poop blood when I'm stressed," I thought.  So going
home unsatisfied with her answer, I promised to get everything even remotely
harmfull out of that room, regardless of what my hubby thought.
 
I'm cleaning off the shelves.  Finally I'm on the last one.  I check
everything one by one.  In a box that had a bunch of stuff in it (keychains,
string, penny wrappers, etc.) I found this chewed up bottle, Angel's
tell-tale trademark.  I turn it over to see what it says, but it's barely
readable.  Finally I decifer it: theatrical blood.....
 
I figured it out right away.  It was the dye in the blood that was tinting
her stools.  She was never sick :-) Here I thought she was dying or going to
need surgery, something horrible like that when the worst she probably had
was an upset tummy from drinking that stuff.  Oh boy, gotta love 'em, right?
 
Ann Styer
[Posted in FML issue 2385]