FML Friends,
 
It's Tony again.  hehe, i got quite a few emails responding to my last
post and it's got my confidence up enough to suggest something i've kinda
been thinking over for a while.  before i get into it, though, thanks to
everyone that took the time to read my post and reply, you make FML feel
like a family.  [btw, my post was "Fun Tip for Single 'Parents'" about 2
days ago.]
 
i'll preface my idea by telling you all that i once heard of this being
done, but it was held somewhere in the UK [quite a bit out of the way of
my 30mi afternoon commute].  i live in central Florida and am a little
dicouraged by how many people will listen to a whole story i tell about
Jeff and ask, "Did you say a parrot did all this??" so, i think it would
be a good idea to do something to raise awareness, money for ferret
rescues, and moral in your community.  furthermore, i think it could all
be done at once.  i propose there be a sort of athletic competition for
ferrets.
 
i realize it would have to be indoors in most areas b/c of the heat, but
i'm sure a pet store chain wouldn't mind housing an event that would
increase public knowledge of one of their more expensive pets ; ) the
moral improvement comes in this way: i'm not sure about other cities, but
Tampa news stations like to put a "good news" story on about once a day
and, with all there is to worry about on the news, what would be better
than encouraging people that have never seen fuzzies in action go down
and see what is possibly the funniest and most entertaining house pet
around.
 
there has to be a point to it all, though.  so, there can be contests
of agility [obstacle courses, tunnels are big ticket items for the pet
shop], stamina [the real test, get your ferret to stand on 2 legs, or
laying flat, or inside a circle drawn on the floor [without sleeping,
lol] for the longest, the high-jump and long-jump [self-explanatory], and
[this will probably be the easiest and most impressive to the public]
the ferret relay race, one ferret has a time limit to put as many toys
[Kongs, for instance] from wash basket A into corner B [or, more likely,
their pet carrier].  we could include grooming contests, but i dunno if
that's practical for the little guys, seeing as how they're 'born to
smell bad' and the clean ones only get a couple dozen baths a year, lol ;
) the proceeds would go towards various local rescues and other ferret
charities as well as inviting local vets to encourage vaccinations and
dispell myths and fears about ferrets [one of my personal goals is to
raise awareness of the fact that, although a ferret may *actually* bite
someone, they have a natural immunity to rabies].
 
at any rate, that's my suggestion, if anyone in Tampa wants to help me
organize the first Fuzithon [or at least come up with a better name, lol]
drop me a line.  it also wouldn't hurt for anyone out there to help
fine-tune the plan so that, when we do get enough people together to
make this happen, it will be as thought-out as possible.
 
Tony
[Posted in FML issue 4216]