*Yeah, we can talk now. Im just cooking dinner.* So began my most recent conversation with another of our vets, Dr. Karen Purcell. Which was a lot more mundane than the response to my previous calls - *I'm waiting for a call about a C-section on a cat* or *Hey, Renee! It's a reeeeaaaaallly bad time right now!* Whether it is delivering kittens for a struggling mama cat or baking cheesecakes to help support a shelter mom or traveling across New England to treat a shelter ferret, Dr. Purcell exemplifies the term - caring vet. And the energy she expends caring seems to be continuously replenished. Her first veterinarian, Dr. Vicki Fowler, Wynantskill, NY, became a lifelong role model and mentor. From the time she was 8 years old, Dr. Purcell has known she wanted to be a veterinarian. Her mother likes to say she knew long before that! *My mom's cat gave birth in my crib when I was like 6 weeks old. 1 kitten, lots of blood, I slept through the whole thing. Mom is semi-convinced this is why I'm a vet, but didn't tell me till after graduation.* However, Dr. Purcell did not actively choose to be a ferret veterinarian. Rather, the ferrets chose her! While working as a *kennel kid* in college, Dr. Purcell met her first ferret. Cleaning the cages, she noticed one was empty, except for a towel. Opening the door to remove the towel, the unsuspecting young woman fell over backwards as something flew past her! That something was a ferret! Several years later her best friend re-introduced her to ferrets. FerretMan, a hefty five pounder, helped her overcome her initial fear. Later, the vet student was offered the opportunity to acquire and neuter her own ferret, which she did. After that, ferrets were a part of her life. As she began seeing more ferrets in her own practice, Dr. Purcells reputation grew. *I guess I knew I was considered the local ferret expert when I began getting referrals from the vet school,* she said. And, she DID co-author the book *Essentials of Ferrets: A Guide for Practitioners: An Update to a Practioner's Guide to Rabbits and Ferrets* by Karen Purcell and Susan Brown. Born and raised in upstate New York, Dr. Purcell loves that area. Playing the dutiful wife, she followed her husband to New Hampshire, where she is now seeing ferrets throughout New England. This woman works hard and plays just as hard. Dr. Purcell has three ferrets now, not to mention the other four-legged members of the household! The past year has been tough on Dr. Purcell. A series of medical problems caused her to make some changes in her life, but Dr. Purcell goes with the flow. This comes easier to her than to some others, as Dr. Purcell belly-dances, a talent she may just share with you for the right cause! Come shimmy and learn from Dr. Karen Purcell on April 29 at the 2005 Ferret Symposium in St. Louis, MO! To use this vet: Karen Purcell, D.V.M. Contact via email: [log in to unmask] Website with schedule info: http://www.world.std.com/~dgp/schedule.html Meet Me in St. Louis! April 29 - May 1, 2005 International Ferret Congress http://www.ferretcongress.org [Posted in FML issue 4826]