Hello to all. I signed off from the FML over the Christmas break because we were going away for 3 weeks and it was my intention to re-connect with you all when we got back. Unfortunately, I haven't yet because there just has not been time to read them but I do miss keeping up with what is going on. As usual, we went with all of our pets, a dog and 6 ferrets. When we left, Nikki and Benji were almost 8 yr. old and ailing in various ways. We wondered how they would manage the trip and they did quite fine, all things considered. Nikki, before we left (she has had adrenal problems for over 3 yr. now) was swelling up in the abdomen area, and we were not able to shrink it down. The swelling grew very slowly and by later in Feb. it because obvious that she was very uncomfortable and we were unable to relieve it. We had no choice but let her go. We had an autopsy done and if we had waited any longer, she may have exploded inside and that would have been unbearable for her. We did the best thing for her. She was just too old and got too stressed out. Surgery wouldn't have helped at all and we would just have put her through too much stress. A few weeks later, we had to let Benji go too. He had a prostate blockage and wasn't going to the bathroom. When we took him to the vets, he was ready to explode too, only in a different way. Poor guy was so uncomfortable, and he was wimpering too and being just plain miserable. He has been visably "old" for a few years now and had lost some weight during the holiday. Even though he had gained some of that back, he was just too old and week to go through such a stressful thing as cathetarization (sp?). To top it all off, last month we laid our sweet old beautiful dog to rest too. She was 13 1/2 yr. old and the best dog in the world. Bye my friends. You are loved very much by us here. Again, because we have such an aged crew, we have been losing them left, right, and center. Sad times here. We have only 4 ferrets left now, and they are all senior citizens too. :( I also have a large favor to ask of you all. I am taking a PowerPoint Presentation course and my final project is on ferrets. I pretty much have it all done except I need some facts and I know these facts have been on here before. One of my titles is "What are they?" How would you answer this. "Where did they come from?" Include the family they come from and a tiny bit of history. I already have some facts here. The one most thing that I really need is some bite statistics. I have seen some stats on the frequency of dog, cat, and ferret bites, proving that per capita, dogs are more dangerous. Can someone help me out with this one. Please respond to me directly using [log in to unmask] because I am still not getting the FML and I won't get it otherwise. Thanks a million for your help. Tryntje Miller. [Posted in FML issue 3071]