Yesterday, "Anonymous" wrote: 
>And make this a "learning experience?" For who? Certainly not the dead 
>ferret.

It already *has* been a learning experience. Message received, loud and
clear. That's why Anonymous posted 'anonymously', lest she or he risk
getting publicly reamed the way Sandra was. "Anonymous" has the full
courage of his convictions...Just not enough to append his actual name
to them.

And yes, this is and should be a learning experience for all of us who
love ferrets, especially the FML newbies among us. Unruly children can
be dangerous to ferrets, and the damage can happen in the blink of an
eye. YOU have to be the first line of defense between your ferrets and
children. Even an older child can get scared by a nip and and hit,
kick, or lash out in fear. You don't know how the kid will act until
that first nip. Some kids just don't seem to have their empathy for
other living creatures firmly in place. They will treat an animal like
a toy, something to be tossed around. Again, you don't know unless you
are there with them, and you have to assume the worst until you are
shown otherwise.

Wolverine and Casper saw the worst of those children, and they didn't
survive it. It makes me very sad. It would make me sadder still to
learn that folks feared posting their unhappy experiences on the FML
for everyones benefit, especially for the *ferrets* benefit. All of
our ferrets are safer, now that the message has gone out and been
underscored. You *have* to watch children with ferrets every minute,
and be ready and willing to intervene for the ferrets safety.

*I* learned in the most dreadful way possible that even a dog who had
been gentle to ferrets for 11 years was capable of remembering her wolf
heritage, and killing. My ferret Ping is He lost his life to the dog
who had tolerated, even played with ferrets for more than a decade
without doing any harm. No one was more shocked than I was, but I was
the hoomin in that situation, and the blame for his death falls
squarely on me, not on the dog. I posted about it when it happened and
some folks ripped me up one side and down the other. It was extremely
painful. But I am glad that I posted. Maybe a ferret or ferrets are
alive today because someone read my post, and changed the way their
dog and ferret interact.

If people are afraid to post to the FML for fear that they will be
slammed, we all lose. Especially the ferrets. Sometimes we learn more
from our failures than our successes.

Alexandra in MA

[Posted in FML 6581]