We had a visitor today.  This gentleman (in the truest sense of the word)
adopted a pair of ferrets from us last summer.  Today he visited us with his
mother and father.
 
His mother has been suffering from Altzheimer's disease.  Her day used to
consist of: waking up, eating, watching TV, and going to bed.  She no longer
communicated with anyone.  That was before the ferrets entered their lives.
 
She was immediately drawn to the ferrets and soon took over responsibility
for their care.  She brushed and groomed them every day.  She took them for
daily walks around the neighborhood with their harnesses and leashes.  She
fed them and played with them.  Every night, after her son walked in the
door, he was greeted with a long, happy story of everything the ferrets did
and got into that day.  (Altzheimer's is supposed to affect short-term
memory.)
 
Her doctor was astounded.  He couldn't imagine what had brought on this
apparent regression of a disease that is supposed to be progressive.  The
son simply told him, "We got two ferrets."
 
Joan (my wife) talked to his mother today and described her as a lively,
happy, bubbly person who was obviously in love with her ferrets.
 
It's days like this that make all of the problems and expenses of running a
ferret shelter all worthwhile.
 
Dick B.
[Posted in FML issue 1760]