Hi all -- I was diggin thru my puter when I came upon this first story -- of my work assignment in Chicago from last summer and thought I would share it with you all. It is a partial story , of our drive up to Chicago. Dooks and grins to all!! Well -- the first leg of the journey -- fine and fast. Ferts are always a favorite at the rest stops. Helena -- the shy little one -- would do the dashing over to the new people -- whereas Ricky would trip them as they walked by. Then both ferts would climb into any food bag that they found -- and it would be a free for all. Dogs be damned -- the ferts are in town. We stopped the first night in Missouri -- right on the order when da momma couldn't't drive any more and she needed to stop. We stayed at a lovely little Holiday Inn -- that was pet friendly. I didn't know that however, It was rather fun. I stopped -- played for the room and then asked where the "back entrance" was. I was directed to the back of the building -- where I went about hiding the car -- in the dark -- so I could "sneak" our little fellas in. Up I go -- with tote bag -- ferrets zipped in. As I climb into the elevator -- I note that there is a little furry head poking out -- and it is sniffing a child's candy bar -- not noticed by the child. I did my best to execute a turn and "stuff" move to get the head back into the bag without alerting other riders to my" secret". We get to my floor -- the bag is wiggling. People are beginning to stare. I explain to them that I ate at a McDonald's and that I have gas. This produces a lot of strange looks and causes people to back away from me. I finally make it to the room where I dash in and ceremoniously dump two bewildered -- excited ferts into a bathroom -- and lock em in. Out the door I go...... dilemma..... how in the hell am I going to get the cage with none noticing......as I am climbing down the back stairs with sweat pouring off my faces......I notice... ..a man...walking into the front door.....attached to this man are two beagles....... the staff takes one look at him and says" aw, how cute......I glance over at the man and ask him....uhm... ..is this a pet friendly facility ? He smiles and says -- I am walking my cats next.........*I sigh* - does this only happen to me? Hehehehe. Second leg of the journey -- we pull into Chi-town. I am exhausted. I have two ferrets that are threatening to disown me if I don't get them into a nice air conditioned room. As we try to struggle with the luggage, the ferrets and each other -- I notice that I cannot go any further than two feet at a time without someone stopping me to exclaim "how cute the ferrets are'. After 15 people stop me, I am dripping with sweat. It is 150 degrees and 120 percent humid in Chi-town kids. I just want IN!!! The ferrets are eating up the attention however, and doing all the cute little tricks that they can to try and get more attention. I grab little Lucy by her cute little neck and begin to slowly choke the life out of her. She gets the message and passes a quick message to Ricky -- Da Momma is gonna blow, da momma is gonna blow. He understands and decides to lay down to allow me to rest. This causes more attention as people now think that the ferret has passed out from heat exhaustion. Oh god. Is there a real reason why I do this to myself? More of this story tomorrow - same fert time, same fert channel! Kim and Her Traveling Army of Idiots [Posted in FML issue 4518]