I am as much outraged about the MD ferret situation as everybody else on
here.  I found myself becoming more enraged with every message where
someone says they feel the same way.  I wish we could all get together
and storm the offices of the officials who so cruelly murdered an
innocent animal.  Besides the fact that it was cruel and heartless to the
ferret, didn't they take into account the feelings of that little girl
who received it as a present?  At the very least, the officials should be
held accountable for the hardship placed on the head of this little girl
and some form of compensation should be given.  Even as small a comfort
the compensation would be, at least it would be something.  This kind of
bureaucratic bull makes me sick.  Combine this kind of junk rulings with
the MA legislators who use the ferret legalization bill as a political
pawn and it makes me sick to think that these jerks ever make it to
office.  I wonder at which point these people lost their hearts and human
decency.  Well, I can go on and on, but I think I just might write them
or call and give them a piece of my mind.
 
        Now onto a slightly legal question related to the above.  My in-laws
live in Maryland.  My mother-in-law wants us to bring the ferret down
when we visit.  I have be unable to break her of the nipping habit.
Should I be super careful about who she is around?  Do the Maryland
authorities have the ability to "extradite" (is that the right word?) an
animal who is liscensed and resides in another state, should she bite
someone in Maryland and they feel the need to get involved (like they did
here)?  For a state that is Ferret-legal, they sure butt their noses in
to ferret business when it is wanted.  Are they trying to use cases like
this to outlaw ferrets?  Ok, I'm on the verge of fuming again over this
so I'll stop.
 
        I just recently had a run in with my little fuzzies first illness.
Monday morning my fiance said she seemed to be trying to throw up.  Her
body was in convulsions and she was making a gagging noise.  Tuesday
night she got away from me and under the bed.  When I retrieved the
little slinky, she made some coughing/gagging noises followed by this
licking noise as if she were chewing on a plastic candy wrapper (which
has happened once).  She wasn't chewing anything, but the gagging made me
worry she had swallowed something and her stool in the morning looked a
bit thin.  I took her to the vet where they x-rayed her and examined her
throat.  She hadn't swallowed anything, but her throat looked irritated.
The doctor gave her amoxycillin drops.  I thought, "Ugg, this is going to
be hell to give to her."  How wrong I was.  Just like some childrens
medicine it is strawberry flavored.  Nibbles loves it.  Medicine time
isn't a chore, it's a treat for her.   Hopefully her "cough" will go
away.  Her illness hasn't changed her rambunctious nature though.  The
doctor commented that she was a little "terror" when they tried the
x-ray.  That's her, my little terror.
 
Thanks for listening to my rantings and thanks Laura, for assuring me her
little toe will be ok.
 
Jim and Nibbles
[Posted in FML issue 1087]