Hello all - Well, as you doubtless heard or know because you live there, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland were closed. Governors of all three declared State of Emergency and called out the National Guard who got to drive around in their Hum-Vees transporting essential people and to have a lot of fun driving in the snow. If you were not picked up by the National Guard then you are not essential. By the time I finished posting the other night, my husband reported the drive-way was clear, and that my car was clean and warmed up. I inspected the driveway (now a sheet of ice) and took note that it was dark outside. I told him that now the driveway was icy, it was dark and the temperature was dropping. I asked him if he would go to the store for me. Now, have you ever seen lightening bolts shoot out of the top of a man's head? I tell you, it is really, really scary. I hastily retired from the field. He did go to the store for me yesterday morning and in addition to ingredients for kit mush, picked up other snow emergency items like hot chocolate and People's magazine (in case the cable went). By early afternoon, I was feeling snowed in. Darby (formerly Pookabeau that I decided was a stupid name) a young hob just in rut was out for play time and annoying the girls. So I said "Hey, little buddy - wanna play in the snow?" So out we went. Bobette, AKA Bo-be Baby, my hand raised ferret, hitched a ride inside my jacket. She thinks she is part of me anyway. Now the snow in our back yard measured variously from 12 to 20 inches. Darby weighs around 5 pounds and really needed to be cooled off, so I dropped him in an area that looked like about 18 inches deep. He shot about 6 feet straight up in the air. Every long hair on his body was bristled - he looked like a demented cat. What goes up, comes down and when he did - he disappeared into the snow again. Laughing I bent to fish him out. He wasn't there! And I could not tell from the deep snow in which direction he went. No snow was caving in. The only evidence I had that he was nearby was a muffled "duhdududuh-snort-duhdududu-snort-snuffle." So I did what any ferret Mom would do, I dove in to save my baby! In just a minute or so, he had tunneled about four feet. Man, do these guys like to dig. Should have let him do the driveway. Anyway, I did fish him out and he was very excited. Snow is cool. He had also snorted a good deal of snow. He wanted to go right back outside. However, Bo-be and I did not. I was covered with snow and Bo-be baby had gotten some snow on her little self too and she was shivering. It was cold and she did not like it. She spent the rest of the day giving me little pinch nips whenever she thought about it. When I dried off Darby, I took note that something was missing from his nether region. Gone, completely gone. This worried me because I was afraid they might get stuck. However, sometime later when I checked, these two little shriveled things had made an appearance. Today, they are back to normal. But I did have a small hope that it would knock him out of season for a while. Oh, well. Cheers, Meg [Posted in FML issue 2943]