Oh, wow!  Grasshopper, I can't wait to play!  Please hurry and make up the
computer game.  When I lived in Arizona in the 70s I had a wonderful ferret
named Polly, who, sadly, was accidentally let outdoors in the Tucson desert
by a friend's "boyfriend" while the friend (Meg) was keeping Polly for me.
Neighbors of Meg's found her (she loved people & always "chirked" right up
to them -- Polly always said chirk, not dook), looked around and knocked on
many doors looking for her owner, and finally took her to the local "pound"
where they put her in a cage with a broken latch on the door.  She escaped
from the cage (which was in the "cat" section) and then ferreted through
the "broken" door (which was supposed to be kept latched closed) into the
dog section, where she somehow got in with a large dog that killed her.
 
She was in the pound only a few hours before Meg returned home from work,
discovered what had happened and she and Peter (another friend of ours,
*not* the soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend) went to the pound and really let the
pound people have it when they told her Polly was dead.  They offered to
"replace" Polly, or pay for her, but I told them to just spend the money
fixing the cage latches and doors so that this would never happen to anyone
else's pet.
 
I now live in California (a FFZ, sigh) but I love reading the FML and
remembering the years of delight Polly and I shared.
 
Fortunately, I am just finishing graduate school at UCLA and have a brand
new job back in wonderful Tucson, Arizona, beginning January 2, so I hope to
contact Ginny Childs (someone I knew long ago, and whose "Kooky Coatimundi"
I knew and adored) or other ferret folk there and see about getting a new
baby.  Any Tucson contacts out there, please drop me a note at the above
e-mail, which will still be active for a month or so, until I get settled in
my new position as an Asst.  Professor at the U.  of Arizona School of
Medicine as a Faculty Development Specialist (helping make medical school a
better experience for all).
 
Grasshopper, your game brought me out of the woodwork, I've been reading
FML for a bit, but I really never wanted to write in.  I hope you work on
your idea, and include bathtubs full of water, occasional snow, and *lots*
of socks :-)
 
JodyLee (and brand new husband, Steve)
Soon to live in a Ferret Friendly Zone, Oh boy!!!
[Posted in FML issue 1426]