Hey Hey Hey,

Following the recent threads of accidents and the passing of Ping is
He and Alexandra, I will rewrite about my accidents. I wrote when they
happened and fortunately I did not get flamed because it would have
devastated me if that had happened. I pray my luck holds out and I dont
get flamed this time. If I do, I will just have to haul up my big girl
panties and realize that mean folks suck.

Let me preface this by saying long before I ever got my first ferret,
I married a wonderful man, honest, dependable, loving, non abusive,
working, humorous, good looking. Also long before I ever got my first
ferret I rescued a beautiful wolf hybrid that was going to be
euthanized because his owner did not know how to handle a dominant
animal. Naki lived with us many years and his special domain, his
favorite, was the back yard. He was protective of that yard. That
being said and out of the way:

I had ferrets for about a year or so when I rescued a beautiful
black/silver/panda mitt. She was so beautiful I called her my uptown
girl. Her name was Sterling. She had escaped her first home and was
running free when someone picked her up and called me. She was
beautiful. Maybee about 6 months old. Sparking personality and loved
to steal socks. She fit right in with my crew. I had my bedroom ferret
proofed and they ran in the bedroom 24/7. One day my husband needed to
use a power tool outside and opened the window just a crack to run a
cord thru and put a teeny tiney hole in the screen. I went into the
bedroom a short while later to play with the ferrets. After being in
there for a little while I noticed that I had not seen Sterling in a
while and started looking for her. As it became obvious she was not in
the bedroom I started freaking out. About that time I noticed the hole
in the screen, behind the head board of the bed and the cord running
out of the window. I asked my husband about it and told him Sterling
was missing. I was outside in the front looking for her. He went into
the back yard where he found her, so had Naki the wolf. I was so upset.
I was hysterical. My husband never ever thought I was too paranoid or
too careful about the ferrets again.

Several years later I lost Noble. Noble had been with me about a year.
He was a rescue. He had insulinoma, cardio, adrenal, ferret asthma.....
But he was the coolest old guy. Mostly Noble slept. There were many
time I thought long and hard about quality vs. quantity of life with
Noble. But everytime I heated up the gravy, Noble would raise his head
and sometimes with eyes still closed, his little tounge would eagerly
flick out. He LOVED that gravy and as long as Noble LOVED something in
this life I was gonna hang on. After a lot of research and nursing etc.
I finaly got Noble to start comming around health wise. He even climbed
the pine tree in the front yard. It was his favorite thing to do. Noble
was also running around the house and acting like a YOUNG ferret again.

My husband worked out of town during that time period and had just come
home for Christmas. I went to work in the morning and my husband went
Christmas shopping. My husband found a little bit too much Christmas
Cheer. I came home from work and he told me all the ferrets were fine
but he did not know where Noble was. I started looking immediately. I
asked if he had fed Naki (the wolf) and Nasty (his wife, a chow) and
he said yes. I told him to look outside for Noble. My husband said
that there was no way Noble could have got out there. I made him look
anyways. Noble had found the way out and over the bridge. I physicly
hit my husband for the one and only time ever and then I sat on my
kitchen floor and screamed and screamed and screamed.

I learned the very difficult thing that Alex learned. Love makes us be
bigger than we are. Sometimes it stretches us in ways we dont want to
go. I could not blame Naki. He was a wolf. I could not expect him to
be anything else. My husband? We are still married. He is very very
careful around our critters. When he has had too much cheer he does
not interact with them at all. I did not rehome all of my ferrets, I
did not quit fostering or rescuing. Today, I still have 4 ferrets. All
rescues. Two of them DMK's. Naki and Nasty have departed for the bridge
due to age. I have two very small dogs now that are terrified of the
ferrets and run when they see them comming.

Both of these accidents had two common threads. Naki and my husband.
They had much more in common than the two accidents that tore
Alexander's heart out. I do not feel I should have quit with ferrets
after I lost Sterling. I did seriously consider it when I lost Noble. I
was talked out of it by a very good friend/shelter operator. I do not
think I made the wrong descision. I am not a child abuser and I do not
need intervention in my life. I feel I am fully accountable and do not
need any outside accountablity partners.
Alex, I have been where you are at. I totaly understand and I think you
are great and am so glad you got Todd. God Bless You.

-- 
Jesus knows me, this I love!

Karen

"When someone loves you they say your name differently. You just know
that your name is safe in their mouth!"
Billy age 4

[Posted in FML 6095]