Judy's is right: the BFF patch IS one of Sharon's best designs so far!
And she is also right in that the trip to the National Black- footed
Ferret Conservation Center was a never to be forgotten experience.
 
Watching Gigi experience prairie dog holes for the first time, darting
from hole to hole, and knowing that soon she will be on the REAL prairie,
was truly inspiring.
 
Also fun was the pen with a mom bff and 5 kits.  They chased each other,
did the "ferret happy dance" (as BFF researchers refer to the weasel war
dance), popped in and out of holes, and were as curious about us as we
were about them.  Many of their behaviors were very similar to our own
ferrets' behaviors.  We could have stayed there all day watching and
photographing them!
 
Pictures from the Forum and the BFF visit are at
http://homepage.mac.com/ferret/IFC/PhotoAlbum12.html
 
The pictures up there now were taken by Judy Cooke, Marylou Zarbock and
me.  As others are sent to me, I'll add them.  Please note that the .mac
homepage makes putting pictures up very easy, but limits the amount of
text, so the individual photos are not identified by photographer, nor
is there space to identify all the attendees.
 
So buy a patch, go to
http://www.prairiewildlife.org
and adopt a bff or buy a shirt, and go to
http://www.blackfootedferret.org
to learn more about this beautiful creature.
 
My deep gratitude goes to Travis Livieri of Prairie Wildlife Research and
Paul Marinari of US Fish and Wildlife for giving us this opportunity.
Their passion and love for the black-footed ferret is clear.
 
Linda Iroff
International Ferret Congress
http://www.ferretcongress.org
[Posted in FML issue 5044]