Hello All:
What a day.  We think the WarmFuzzy Show was a great success.  Without
exception, every ferret there was warm, fuzzy, friendly and cute.  Their
humans were just as nice.  There must have been 500 ferrets who attended
and maybe even more people.  I got to meet lots of people from the FML whom
I never before met.  Its funny how you get impressions of people through
their posts and then they turn out to be far different.  For example, I met
Bill and Diane Killian.  I always thought he was an older man with thinning
gray hair.  It turns out he's young with brown hair and lots of it.  Both
of the Killians were judges.  You could tell they took their job seriously
(as did all judges).  I never imagined the judges would be as careful as
they were.  The fuzzies were checked out completely from top to bottom and
everywhere in between.  All of the judges were more than happy to discuss
scores and good and bad things about each furbutt.  Sadly, none of the
judges would accept bribes as the scores of my ferrets can attest:o)
 
I must publicly apologize to Mary McCarty.  I think she was the only judge
bitten by a ferret enough to draw blood.  She was very gracious about it to
the owner.  We will make sure that an adequate supply of band aids are at
the judges table and not out in a truck when we do our next show.  Even
though Mary was gracious, I bet that ferret had some points taken off!!!
Now here's my beef.  Mary, I don't understand how my Chloe, the most
perfect DEW in the whole wide world could only place fifth.  Mary, how
could you do this to us even after you wrote "gorgeous coat" on the score
sheet.  Just kidding <ggg>.  I won't post her negative comments because
Chloe reads my out going mail and would be crushed.
 
Being serious here for a moment, I was the steward who added up all of the
score sheets (over 8,000 numbers throughout the day).  Some people were
thrilled with their ferrets' places while some people were disappointed.
What most people did not know is that scores between first place and last
place may have only differed by five points and that the scores between
places may have only differed by one-tenth of a point.  The judging was
very close and several of the judges tried to stress that every ferret they
saw was a good ferret with no bad ones in the bunch.
 
We were honored by Mary and Eric Modern Ferret who stopped by unannounced
and spent the day.  It was nice to meet somebody famous.  However, I was
sorely disappointed.  Eric has always stressed Mary's various shades of
red hair and I love red heads.  Unfortunately, she arrived as a blonde, oh
well.  They were very gracious and we appreciate them being there.
 
One of the things we tried to stress was healthy fuzzies.  Every ferret who
entered the hall was checked by a vet.  I am glad to report that no ferret
had to be turned away.  It is obvious that all of them were well cared for.
 
The vendors were great.  Lots of places to spend money and I certainly
spent mine.  I think many other people did as well.
 
All in all I think it was a great day.  Met lots of real nice people and
even more real nice ferrets.  Having never been to a ferret show before, I
didn't quite know what to expect.  I was thoroughly impressed and heartily
recommend it.  I look forward to the next show in the eastern U.S.
 
Dale
[Posted in FML issue 2753]