Well, it has been years since I last posted and living in California, it always was a gamble. Now we have moved to Texas and we miss nothing about CA, just our two children that stayed behind. Back in 1995 we were busted for having ferrets. If you would like to read that story, it is still posted on http://www.angelfire.com/ca/Ferretlessinca/ the e-mail address is incorrect, but the story is not fiction. We were on probation for two years, in which the CA Fish Fuzz could have come into our house at any time without a search warrant. Needlessly to say that we did not have ferrets at our house during those two years. Lami died of old age during this time, away from us, it broke my heart. Right when our probation was going to be over in March of 1998, the person that took care of Sid, called me and let me know that he had the early signs of adrenal. I had Sid flown to the Oregan Ferret Shelter in Portland and we drove up to see him. The wonderful owner said that she would get him the surgery and when he was healthy, we could smuggle him back to California. Nothing prepared me for what we were about to see. There was nothing early about his signs of adrenal. The poor little ferret was totally bald, I was crushed. The vet scheduled the surgery for the next day. We spend all day with Sid and then had to go back home. They didn't know if he was going to make it through the surgery. The next day I called and was told the surgery was a success and he would be able to recover. Well, Sid never made anything easy, that night, he tore out most of the stitches and had to go to the emergency vet and be restitched. The next week, we got to pick him up and smuggle him back home. I swore that if they caught us, I would run and they would have to shoot me in the back and pry this ferret out of my dead hands. We had Sid ever since he was 7 weeks old and he had gone through so much, there was no way I was going to let the Fish Fuzz have him again. Thank goodness, we did not get caught. He had a great recovery and the end of 2000, he developed another cancer and the vet told us that he could not operate. By now, Sid was 10 years old and the vet said to just keep him comfortable through his last few month. We have always had bad luck with holidays and previously had lost a dog on Valentines day. Valentines day 2001, Sid got really bad, he didn't want to move around anymore and would just laid there. He didn't seem to be in pain, he just seemed to give up. I had to go to work that day, but my husband stayed with him. He held on until I got home. I sat there, holding him and talking to him, crying my eyes out. I don't think that he wanted to die on Valentines day, adding another bad memory to this holiday. We sat up with him past midnight. My husband had the TV on and "Meet Joe Black" was on. I don't know if you have ever seen this movie, but at one point, Joe is in the hospital, talking to this old lady that wants to die. She asks Joe to please let her die and at that point, I asked God to please let Sid go, he had been through so much and deserved to cross over. And God answered my prayer, Sid looked up at me as to say, it's ok, I am ready and he went to sleep. We buried him in California, a state that made his life miserable and did not appreciate him. I miss him so much. The last three years that we spend with him, were worth breaking the law again. I swore that nobody was ever going to take my ferrets away from me again. I have a memorial painted on the back window of my car (after Sid died), it has a picture of Sid and Lami with the dates that both died. It says: "Died in Exile". I drove this truck every day and I would tell everybody the story that would ask about the picture. It is amazing how ignorant people in CA are, most do not even know that ferrets are illegal and know people that have them. We drove out of CA the end of August 2002 with 16 cats, 1 dog and 5 ferrets and did not look back. FREEDOM Ilona, formerly Ferretless in CA [Posted in FML issue 4046]