>she has learned to open plastic pop bottles that i freaze to help keep
>them cool...so that she can get to the cold water in the bottle... then
>proceed to take the cap and hide it lol .
 
LOL!  Fritter years ago had a choice use for bottle caps.  She would
carefully position the caps, open end up, then put herself over them
and turd in them.  It was incredible.  Except for a nearby anal wipe
dot nothing would outside the cap.  We'd just go around picking up
steamy bottle caps and throwing them out.
 
I'm sorry that I haven't had time to say so with Chiclet so sick, but it
sure has been good reading the many poems in the FML.  They've given me
things to think about.  Right now we've got so much going on here that
personally it sure would hit the spot if some more funny ones appeared,
so if anyone's funny bone if itching to express itself...
 
Chiclet can now lift her head better and longer, and even lift her truck
some though she can't stand.  She still has a great interest in life --
seeing the ferrets, watching us, listening to music, eating, etc.  She's
continued fighting for herself all through this.  I guess she is going on
to week 6 now, onto her second week of IV meds.  We still can't find any
ferret who has had an infection as severe as her's (with cellulitis and
with signs of sepsis in the past though hopefully she has passed beyond
that) who lived; the closest was a 10 month old but his sepsis caused his
heart to fail, but we sure appreciate the tips and ideas we've gotten.
If she gets her way Chiclet will make it, and she is making progress so
maybe the right combination will just click at some point.  At least it
isn't mycobacterium or she'd have had to be given a mercy shot.  (Chances
of that always were very low because we don't feed raw, though even then
it's not terribly common.)
 
Clarification: below Dr. Williams' post which mentioned his
collaboration on:
 
(http://www.afip.org/Departments/infectious/mp/index.html).
  and his notes including:
>While the CDC (and most non-veterinarians) often take a very wide
>stance, there is no evidence, in over 30 years of monkeypox literature,
>of infection or transmission of the disease by animals other than
>monkeys (the natural host) and rodents (the natural reservoir).
 
I noted below:
>[Sukie note: as you see there is good reason for mentioning that this
>is matter of them playing "better safe than sorry", but also mentioning
>that there is no indication of other mammalian orders than Rodentia or
>Primates getting it -- hence the confusion that exists...]
 
since I haven't heard any complaints or confusion I think that it is
obvious to everyone that I was referring to the confusion *in the ferret
community* which was increased by the FDA phone calls to multiple
shelters and by news reports from confused members of the media.  In case
anyone read this out of context due to joining recently I figured that
I'd better clarify this point.  Here is more information:
 
http://www.smartgroups.com/message/viewdiscussion.cfm?gid=1423922
&messageid=5232
[Posted in FML issue 4203]