This is the first time I have ever posted but had a story about why the
word Melatonin makes me feel dizzy and light-headed.
 
My ferret Peanut aka Pikachu, who has had his adventures posted before
here as he is master escape artist and expert climber who thinks he can
fly.  Anyway, I digress.
 
My mom flew out to the east coast from California to visit me and go with
me to the furballs first show.  She was having trouble sleeping so I put
some Melatonin on my shelf by my bed and she said she would take it if she
needed it.  During the night P. made his usual racket so I let him out to
run around and fall asleep under my bed with all his toys( and mine as
well!) He woke me up in the morning by falling asleep on my head.  We all
got up an hour later and mom and I played with P.  and went to get some
last minute supplies and dinner.  We came back and Peanut was sleeping so
we did not bother him.  We watched tv and about 3 hours later I had an
overwhelming feelin of dread.  I ran to the cage and grabbed the fuzzy
butt out of his hammy.  He was limp and cool ( cool because he was next to
the AC vent on the floor)  No matter what I did, no response.  I almost
shoved the hairball goo up his nose as I was shaking and crying so bad.
I could not figure out what had happened.
 
I looked on the shelf and asked mom how many Melatonin she took as there
was one left and I had left three out for her.  She said she woke up in
the middle of the night and took one.  She thought one had fallen on the
floor but thought nothing of it.  She had only just met him and only saw
my other feret once and knew nothing about their behavior.  She fely very
badly.  She grabbed Peanut as I looked for the shoes that were right in
front of me.  She got the boy to wake up and we looked for the Melatonin.
It was nowhere to be found.  They were a rather high dose as well.  We
kept him awake as much as we could until he cried begging us to leave him
alone.  He crawled into my closet to hide from us and went to sleep.
 
We went to the ferret show and found our friend Denise, who loves the
little vegatable stealing monster, and told her what happened, she took
Peanut, scolded him for eating that wasn't nailed down and whisked him
away to our favorite ferret vet who looked and was trying to hold back her
laughter seeing how concerned I was.  She said he was fine, just a little
dopey.  By the time we got back to our table, people were stopping by to
see The Melatonin Boy.  Those who knew him gave him hugs and kisses and
said how it wasn't nice to make mom cry, but he could probably get that
new fleecy hammy and some toys out of it.  I tried to keep him awake for
his class which was delayed for 4 hours!  We finally made it up to the
judge and Peanut cried while he was being examined then bit the judge.  He
never bit anyone in his life up until then.  There were 15 other ferrets
in his class and the first 5 were deeply disappointed.  When he announced
number ten was Peanut, the Melatonin Boy, everyone cheered.  Peanut missed
his moment of glory as he was fast asleep in the hood of my sweatshirt.  I
was not afraid now as he was doing his limp spaghetti thing again.  I was
so proud of him for doing so well.  ( We had on last check by a vet before
we went home and all had VERY long naps!
 
Not to worry, between me and his Mommy 2, I am sure there will be more
stories to tell for your amusement as Peanut, now Pikachu, has very happy
feet and big tummy.
 
Fuzzy love to all!
Jules
[Posted in FML issue 3740]