Melissa here,
 
I'm kinda grumpy today because due to an unfortunate set of circumstances, i
had to take my roommate's rat in to have her put to sleep.  She had a very
large growth which, though benign, was making her life very uncomfortable.
My roommate didnt have the money to pay for removal, i am too allergic to
rats (she scratched me and my right hand and left arm have been swollen all
day) to be able to keep her, and i couldnt take on her vet bills when she
needed the operation anyway.  She was very sweet, very curious, and my
roommate didnt take care of her at all in her last 6 months.  I know the
people on this list are the wrong ones to entreat, but:
 
PLEASE, if you are going to buy or adopt a pet, make sure you realize the
extent of your committment beforehand.  Most of us here won't think twice
before paying for an pet's operation that will cost hundreds of dollars -
but it seems that most people dont think twice about the fact that nearly
every pet will require that sort of expense at least once in their
lifetimes.
 
Enough of that rant for now; i know i'm preaching to the converted. hee.
 
Tracy (and the listers who helped with suggestions about building a ferret's
confidence):
 
Easel the three-legged ferret's doing wonderfully.  Her new approach to
wrasslin' is to bounce up and down so energetically that she has the
advantage of height on her attackers, so she can *splat* 'em.  Unfortunately
for Friday and Noodle, she interprets 'attackers' as 'any ferret who walks
haplessly by.' Hee!  For a four-month (or so) old ferret, she's remarkably
loving.  Everyone who sees her goes, "Wow, a three-legged ferret?" as though
she were an entirely different species.  Yeah, they're breeding them in
Tasmania now.  Heh.
 
Melissa
 
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      Melissa Litwicki                              "Is it ... atomic?"
      [log in to unmask]                             "Yes! VERY atomic!"
[Posted in FML issue 1690]