Dear Ferret Folks- What follows is a re-post of my arguement for why one should minimally vaccinate ferrets against rabies. This is for Angie and Roscoe, welcome to the FML! **************************************************** >Date: Sun, 20 Jan 2002 10:46:16 -0500 >From: sargentcolburn <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: I Hate Meeses to Pieces, Especially FLYING Ones! > >Oh, yes Dear Ferret Folks- > >Our Fuzzies can be deadly effective little hunters, as Kim's post >illustrated. Several years age, while I was napping, I was awakened >abruptly by the most horrid noises you can possibly imagine. Piercing >shrieks, scrabbling and scratching sounds, thumps, the sound of things >being overturned. My Ferret Mommy Radar instinctively knew that weasels >were involved. I ran through the house to the sound of a battle being >waged.."Oh god, oh, god let them be O.K.!) > >I found Sabrina engaged in mortal combat with...something. She was >rolling on the floor with something small, dark, fuzzy, and wounded in >her mouth. "A mouse!", I thought. A mouse that was shrieking, bleeding >and ...flapping? Flapping as in wings? That weren't no oooordinary >mousie, oh no, it was much worse than that. It had a little gargoyle >face, tiny fangs, and membranous wings. It was a BAT. A small brown >BAT. One I was going to have to remove from Sabrina's face with my BARE >HANDS. > >Rabies. The Black Death of Europe. Thoughts of contagion and vile, >black, dripping disease flashed through my mind. Bat cooties. What if >it bit me? What if Sabrina wouldn't let go and I had to wrench it from >her bloody fangs by force? In the end that's just what happened. >Sabrina was NOT about to part with her prize willingly. Nope. She >evidently had plans to mount it's dark Satanic little head on a plaque >and keep the trophy on her cage wall. Imagine tearing sounds. > >I telt terrible for the bat, at the same time I was afraid of it. By >then it was pretty clear that its' carefree days of wolfing down its' >own weight in mosquitos were over. It was no more. It had ceased to >be. This was an ex-bat. >Sabrina was sooooo pissed at me. > >Especially during the several weeks she was quarintined in her cage >after the animal control officer came. Evidently the bat was not rabid, >although I destroyed the possibility of testing it by placing it's >tattered little body in a Zip-Loc and freezing it in anticipation of >his arrival, hence the quarrintine. Freezing destroys the virus. >Fortunately, some months before, some paranoid impulse lead me to have >my vet vaccinate all of my mammalian pets. I still had the metal tag >and papers. Thus Sabrina did not suffer the fate of the late, lamented >KodoNobody cut her head off, then decided she was fine. > >Remember this, the next time you might be tempted to say "But my >petnever leave the house, I don't need to vaccinate them..." > >I later tried to sicc Sabrina (henceforth known as Sabrina the >Bat-Biter) on the mice in my Mother's pantry to no avail. Sabrina only >hunts on her own terms, evidently. She has always been difficult. She >likes her mice with wings. > >Sincerely, >Alexandra in Massachusetts > >Switch the Kit: "What did it taste like, Aunt Sabrina?" >Sabrina: "Chicken." >[Posted in FML issue 3669] [Posted in FML issue 3856]