Hi All!
 
I actually have some real ferret news this time!  The ferret show
this Saturday (Sept. 14th) has been moved.  It is now to be
held at the Holiday Inn, 700 Hope Rd., Tinton Falls, NJ (in Monmouth
County).
 
Directions:
Take the Garden State Parkway to exit 105.  After exiting the Parkway,
go to the first traffic light and make a right turn.  The Holiday Inn
is a 1/2 block on the right side of the road.
 
If you're interested in staying at the Holiday Inn call 1 800 2 JERSEY.
The price for a single or double room is $65, remember to mention
that you're with the NJFA show.
 
Check in time for ferrets entering is 7 - 8 am  (I don't know if
they'll accept entries at the door.  Give them a call if you're
interested and haven't signed up yet.)
 
Judging begins at 9 am.
 
For more information call Bill Darby 1 908 870 9511 or Gail Tomko
609 581 8627.
 
-----------------------------------------------
 
I'm pretty upset.  The show's just 4 days away, and Bree has completely
blown her coat!  She really looks terrible.  At first glance it looks
like she has a bad case of mange, or something.  But there is nice thick
new hair growing in, so I'm not too worried about it.  She normally
has an absolutely *GORGEOUS* soft, thick coat, and now it's coarse
with some areas long and others 1/4 inch thick (and darker than the rest).
She's shedding handfulls of hair (no exaggeration, this morning I was
trying to get it off of her, and had a good size handfull of wadded
fur).
 
Has anyone else had a ferret shed like that?  All previous coat changes
have been very slow, and I barely noticed the shedding at all.
 
I think that my schedule lately could have a lot to do with it for
the following reasons:
 
1.  General stress, she's pretty upset that she's locked up in my room
all day, and doesn't get to come downstairs and play.
 
2.  Lighting, since I come home from the hospital every night around 2 am
and get up in the early afternoon they've been basically under natural
lighting (except for a couple hours in the middle of the night).  Maybe
her body is just trying to adapt to the current season too quickly.
 
Oh, well.  I guess we'll still go to the show for the fun of it (that's
the only reason I go, anyway).  I'm glad I didn't pay for Bree to be in
the Championship class, though.  She's entered in the Cinnamon Specialty
class, and Percy's only in the Sable Specialty.
 
They're both going to lose a lot of points for muscle tone, too.  They're
not getting nearly enough exercise.  They view my room as a cage, so all
they do is sleep when they're in there.  I play with them when I'm
home, but it's not the same as getting to go downstairs and run around
for hours on end every day.  I really feel terrible that I can't
spend more time with them, but I guess we all need priorities...  :-(
 
-------------------------------------------------
 
For those of you who are interested, here's an update on my sister.
Once again, this is not a ferret related topic, so if you aren't
interested in reading about it please skip to the end of this letter.
 
For those of you who are new, or have been away for awhile, let me
summarize what happened:  On July 15th, my sister, Peggy, her husband,
Mike, and their 10 month old son (a year Sept. 9th), Alex, were in a
terrible automobile accident.  Momentarily distracted by Alex fussing,
Mike failed to notice a truck, going about 5 mph on a 55 mph road,
spraying the median.  He pull out to pass the car he was behind in the
right lane and drove right into the back of the truck.  Knowing Mike,
he was probably going between 50 and 60 mph at the time (He's a
*VERY* safe driver).  It was the day after their 7th anniversary, and
they had taken the day off to go to the beach, it happened on their
way down.  Alex, amazingly, only had two bruises on either side of
his neck, and a *small* scratch on the top of his head, probably
from flying glass.  Thank you Lord for car seats!!!  Mike had a broken
nose, his head banged pretty good (he lost is short term memory for
quite a few hours), his teeth went through his bottom lip, several
teeth loose, one broken, his funny bone in his right arm was broken off,
and the end of one bone in the same arm shattered, one of his knees
was cut pretty severely, and *LOTS* of cuts and bruises.  Aside from
being stiff and sore, he's pretty much all healed now.
 
Peggy made out the worst.  She was in the back seat, in the center, so
she only had a lap belt on.  (Alex must have been fussing, so she was
in the back taking care of him.)  The lap belt did save her life, but
it also did some very extensive damage.  It basically (without going
through her skin) sliced through her stomach and intestines and broke
her back.  They had to remove about half of her stomach, and quite a
few of her intestines.  It's amazing that she's alive, when she arrived
at the hospital, her blood pressure was 0.  Again, many thanks, Lord,
for this happening only about 5 minutes from a hospital!!!  Her back
was also broken, very low.  But, the most devastating long term effect
is that the blood supply to her lower back was somehow cut off, so she
will more than likely never walk again.  Right now the paralysis level
is at the nipple line.  She has very little sensation from there down,
and absolutely no motor skills from there down.  She has full, although
weak, range of motion with her arms but her hands are very limited.
They do expect them to come back, though.  On her right hand she can
stretch her fingers about 1 inch, and can move her thumb independently
about 1/2 inch.  The left hand's finger's motion is barely discernable.
The last update I gave you I think she was still in ICU, well, she's
has been moved out since then.  She spent 4 weeks in ICU, and has been
in a private room since then.  She was taken off the ventilator a few
days after being in her own room, and only used it to sleep.  A few
days after that, she was off it entirely.  About a week later they pulled
the trach tube out, and that's pretty much healed now.  She is still in
the hospital, due to her extensive internal injuries which take a *LONG*
time to heal.  They finally let her eat real food about 4 days ago, but
that only lasted about a day.  They discovered that she has a hole in her
duadeum (serious sp???), the thing that attaches to your lower stomach,
 
[Yup, serious: duodenum ;-)]
 
between it and the intestines.  They expect it to heal on it's own, but
if it doesn't they may have to operate again.  As soon as it heals, and
they get her back on real food (probably 2 weeks from now, minimum) she'll
be off to Magee rehab hospital in downtown Philadelphia, which is the
regional spinal cord injury center.  She'll probably spend about 3 months
there.
 
Peggy's spirits have been really good.  She get's upset and cries every
few days, but she's usually in pretty good spirits.  All the doctors and
nurses adore her.  They say she's about the best patient they've ever had.
She's working extra hard on her rehab, she knows the harder she works,
the sooner she gets to come home to be "Mommy" again.
 
I would like to thank the person who wrote me offering to find out
about her doctors.  I really do appreciate it, but fortunately her
doctors have such wonderful reputations that we didn't have to take you
up on that.  Her neurosurgeon is Dr. Peter Huang, who's the second in
line to work on the president if ever he should need it.  Her primary
doctor is Dr. Young, who's the director of Trauma at Christiana Hospital.
Her doctors are definately the best around.  Her just being alive is proof
enough of that for us!  (We just found out recently that they fully
expected her to die for quite a while after the accident, due to
an infection or pneumonia setting in.  Fortunately, she didn't have any
of the secondary complications they were fully expecting.  It's a pretty
scary thought though!)
 
I've taken over caring for Alex in the evenings.  I pick him up
from daycare every day, give him dinner, then we go in to visit his
Mommy.  He doesn't really recognize her as his Mommy, but at least he's
not scared of her, and will play with her (He wouldn't at first).
Luckily he's so young, he won't remember any of this when he gets
older.  But it's very hard on Peggy.  She's missing about 5 months
of his life when a lot of very dramatic changes are occurring with him.
She couldn't even go shopping for his first birthday.  Although we did
have the party in the hospital.  We used a conference room, and they
put her in a wheelchair and took her in.  It went great, and cheered
her up tremendously.
 
I've also been staying with Peggy at night, which is why I haven't had
time to write in so long.  For a while I was staying until about 4 am
when someone would relieve me for the rest of the night.  Now I just
stay until after all the shift change stuff, which is usually over at
about 1:30 or so.  I leave as soon as she goes to sleep after that.
 
Well, I guess that's (more than) enough for now.  I'll keep you posted.
Since the worst of it's over now, the updates shouldn't be all that
involved from now on so I won't be wasting so much valuable ferret-talk
space.  Sorry for discussing such depressing stuff on the list.  But I
do consider quite a few of you my friends, and this seems like the best
way to keep everyone posted.
 
[Nancy, there's no need to apologize.  Anybody who wants to complain
has to go thru me first.]
 
Thanks for all the support!!!
 
- Nancy
 
Nancy Hartman                                   CIS graduate student
[log in to unmask]                                U. of Delaware
        President and founder, Delaware Valley Ferret Club
                      Owner of Percy & Bree
                                                                          
[Posted in FML 0174]