hi!  First off, i want to thank everyone who has taken the time to answer
any questions i have had, or has written me a kind word/ come to my defense
during unkind words
 
a bit about me... i live in northern NJ, in an apratment complex where
we're not allowed to have even fish but everyone has a cat in the window
and the landlord doesnt seem to mind me walking a ferret outside.  i've
been on enough mailing lists before that i realize the best way to go
about things is to be nice, and not to jump on people who are already
established on said mailing list at least until you are so established
yourself... um, i'll get to that in a bit.
 
for my birthday in april, my boyfriend and i got a baby... mollie, 6 weeks
old at the time, and i dont know a mitt from a sable, so i wont even go
there, but she's a cutie!
 
mollie is my 4th ferret.  my first was wantie, i got her atabout 6 months
old, and when she was about 3 we adopted her sister bootsie (from the same
litter) from a friend whos parents practically killed her by giving her
salt water to drink- bootsie lasted 2 happy years with us and then died,
wantie was almost 10 when one day my mom found her not breathing, gave her
mouth to mouth, and started her breathing again, but her brain was already
gone-- i had to leave her with my mom to go to work- i was stressed out,
told my boss where to stick it, got fired, and came home and waited 9 hours
for her to stop breathing.then, cody came along.  in college, my roommate
had a wild little boy-she had rescued him from a shelter that told her that
the people who owned him before took a liking to dropping him into the pool
from the 2nd story (to see if he could swim, and, i suppose, if he liked to
dive).  he was a handful, and when she took him home to her mothers house
for the summer, her mother said "get rid of this thing or i'll get it put
to sleep".  my roommate wanted me to take him, my dad said no way, so my
roommate was able to keep him for the summer, than i got to take him with
my new roommate in my new apartment.  well, he inched his way into my
parents house, and when i finally moved out on my own, he stayed there
because he and my mom are inseparable.
 
so, just as background- mollie is my 4th ferret, but my first baby.  also,
the first one who has ever decided it would be a good idea to roll around
while i clipped her nails.  therefore, the first one that ever spilled
blood.
 
Unfortunatley or fortunately, (im not sure which) i never read tim fowlers
original response to me cutting mollie's nail.  however, peoepl have been
nice to summarize it for me, and i've seen snippets of it.  i dont owe
tim anything, but for whatever reason, i'll respond to what he wrote most
recently:.
 
>The reason i reacted as i did wasbecause the image put in my mind was of
>a ferret bleeding profusly from a badly cut toe, bandaged up and still
>bleeding.  The poor creature must have been in agony, and this sort of
>needless pain upsets me.
 
when i wrote my email, i was stressed.  why?  i had just cut my ferret.  i
know it happens to lots of people.  but here she is, a tiny little thing,
with a white chest, and her white chest is now red.  her white hands are
now red.  her back, and her belly, have a spot of red on them.  why?
because while i'm trying to hold her hand in a paper towel , and she
decides that she wants to wrestle with me, the stuffed lamb doll, and eat
the paper towel roll all at the same time.  i, on the other hand, am trying
to connect to my dial up, type an email to the list, and hold her all at
the same time.  to make a long story short, getting a bath, or even being
put in her litter box and told to make nougat are all apparently more
traumatic events than getting one's toe nicked.was it really a lot of
blood?  looking back, no, but it was all over because she wanted to play.
was it agony?  no.  was it needless?  yeah, but it happens apparently to
even the most experienced.  am i a terrible person who does not deserve
to take care of a living creature?  i dont think so.
 
>Obviously some of you took the oportunity to react as expected of you
>towards an 'outsider' ,and i feel that this sort of zenophobia should be
>stamped out from a list like this, one which should embrace ferret keepers
>from all over the world.I have been deeply wounded by some of the e-mails
>that i recieved, and those of you who sent them must be very bitter
>people.
 
i first read this as people being protective of me, the "outsider" and
jumping on him because they dislike him.  knowing the nature of lists, it
occurs to me that he feels like an outsider and thats what he is talking
about... but i must say to him, outsiders are usually such because they
make themselves.  i just joined this list in april and i've gotten nothing
but warmth from people (other than you).  maybe it is your nclination to
tell people they are terrible people for making a simple mistake that makes
people dislike you, and in turn, treat you like an outsider.  as far as the
people who are attacking you being "bitter", itsounds to me as if you are
the bitter one.  i'm sure you love your ferrets and are a good companion to
them, but there will come a day where you cut them accidentally, or bang
their head up against the cage wall because they want to wrestle and you
have other ideas, or almost trip over them, or squeeze vitamins on their
nose, or have a blanket that their nails get stuck in.  accidents happen
with children and pets alike and cannot always be prevented.
 
    *LisaMarie Blohm*
 
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[Posted in FML issue 3433]