Guys, I haven't been around lately; I had to make a week-long trip to
Portland Oregon.  (Note to BIG: The bottom half of this *is* relevant, since
quite a few people on the FML have "law problems" in one way or another!)
 
Felix the albino cuddle was all set for adrenal surgery last monday; he'd
been healthy but we knew there was a problem.  I had a friend all lined up
who's had ferts before who was going to deal with post-surgical care, etc,
so I figured everything would be fine.
 
Arg.  So Friday night, Felix starts looking a bit down.  Not too bad, still
eating, drinking and poopin, just a tad sluggish.  I check him out, he seems
like he'll be fine for the night, so we went to bed.  By Saturday morning,
he still didn't look too bad but he was vomiting; by the time the emergency
animal hospital that the vet is affiliated with opened at noon, I'd been
unable to get water in him at all, not even ferretone or his favorite
hi-vite drops.  I checked him into the hospital, they did some fluid
injections and he started eating and drinking again.  I had to leave him
with the hospital and arrange transportation to the vet Monday morning for
surgery; I didn't like it but I had to make Portland by Monday AM from the
San Francisco area - by motorcycle.
 
I checked with them often, he was doing fine...until surgery monday.  The
poor little dude had tumors in four organs - I'm told by my vet and others
that this is rare, adrenal problems don't usually jump, but that poor stoic
little guy just ignored it till it hemmoraged, and even *then* he didn't
seem to be uncomfortable.  The vet recommended not waking him up, and I
agreed.
 
One word describes that little dude: gentle.  I had him in public often,
well over 200 kids alone handled him and he *loved* it - we did a lot for
the CA legalization effort in that alone.
 
As an aside, some of you might want to know what was so critical in Oregon.
This: a friend of mine was framed by a dirty cop within Portland PD,
Internal Affairs had whitewashed it, and he is right now a fugitive on a
$4,999 bench warrant for failure to appear on charges of non-violent
violations of a restraining order.  The restraining order was just part of
a much larger scheme to defraud him - the woman involved got him thrown out
of his own house by claiming he wasn't a resident, and therefore wasn't
entitled to his property in the house.  Within a month of that, she
declared him dead to a real estate agent, a boat broker, a loan company and
two insurance agencies.  She then told the original cop that helped her
serve the phony restraining order he was dead, and Portland PD released all
8 of Howard Bradley's guns seized when the order was served to her.
 
Of course, once Howard turned up alive, they covered all this up and started
throwing charges at him.  The police "Records Department" had the complete
file on the serve and the gun seizure from him/release to her, but nothing
about *why* the release, or who authorized it.
 
Then I went to the Properties office: A fragment of the truth was there, a
handwritten note from the same cop that did the serve and released the guns
and did other crimes later.  It reads as follows, on his stationary, signed
with his name, JOHN LAWS: "Mr. Bradley has commited suicide and per a phone
conversation with Judge Suther-Wyatt, it is OK to release these guns to his
widow."
 
Three problems here: Howard ain't dead, Becky Ann Beaton ain't his widow, or
at least, that's what she claimed on the restraining order of a month prior
which was handwritten by this same Officer John Laws, and best of all, Judge
Souther-Wyatt has officially told both myself and Portland PD Internal
Affairs that she never authorized or even knew about the guns release.
 
IA has reopened the investigation.
 
And then on top of all *THAT*, my beloved BUELL was STOLEN on SUNDAY, TWO
DAYS AGO.  Arggggggg.  Lost the world's best ferret and the world's best
bike, all in one week.
 
Cooking a dirty cop's goose ain't ever gonna make up for it, but it's
helping make life bearable.
[Posted in FML issue 1661]