- Laura and The Seattle Seven at www.ferretocious.com writes: >You got to meet Dr. Fitz from Alameda East? (Emergency Vets on Animal >Planet) Oh man he seems like the coolest vet!! Is he as nice in person?? --- He acted just like what you see on the TV show. Only much, much funnier. He is a stand up comic on the side and really knows how to "work a crowd". Lol. How funny is Reb McFarlanes face in that photo?! I'm sure she wants to kill me for putting that up, but I had to include it. I mean you have to wonder if she left a load in her pants (BIG stop cringing, you know it's true). >And that baby ferret pics? Gaaaahhhh!!! And what's with big fluffy >Minky? How cute is that?? --- Seeing the baby ickle wickles, mookas, or what have you was a huge experience for me. I mean huge. I had never seen any before. Ever. I cant' tell you how cute their sounds were. And they talk incessantly. When they were away from the mother, they stayed in a ball like you see in the photos. When they are with her, they act just like what you saw on that video cam of the black footed ferret and her baby a long while ago. They crawl away every second and she has to retrieve them constantly. It's hysterical. Poor thing! That big gorgeous creature, Minky, was unreal. He was actually not photogenic. His hair was so thick, you couldn't see his skin even when you tried to part his fur. It was long, soft, very lush and stood it up because it was so thick. His head was enormous (especially with the fur), and bulkier than a normal ferret. He was pure muscle too, very hardy. But what really stood out was his disposition. He was gentle and very peaceful. He fell asleep in peoples arms. Maybe he's zippier at home and he was tired at the event. I have no idea. Some people might like em a bit feistier, some not. But what a wonderful companion animal. Melinda (one of the Cali sisters ... Claudia T is her sister) was having uh ... far too much fun with him. She loved his cute fuzzy nuggets a bit too much as you can see. LOL. Dr Karen showed me my first ferret pickle too. I jumped back it frightened me so! I was shocked to see there really was something underneat that "belly button" ya know? And he just laid there all to happy to show it off too. >It was bugging me that I couldn't figure out either that animal in the >pic named "zdontlookp.JPG". So I went to the St. Louis Zoo website and >it's the Bush Dog from South America. Never even heard of that before! >What a cool zoo. --- Know what? I can't thank you enough. It was bugging me as well. Sukie and I have been all over the net trying to figure it out. Boy was he pissed though. He was standing guard at the entrance of his little house there, and kept glaring back and forth at us. >Bush dogs, mongoose, lemurs - cool collection of animals you rarely get >to see! --- The penguin are in a one of a kind exhibit there. The only one like it in the world. They swim up against viewers like at an aquarium. It is very, very natural too. What I could not show you was the huge inside enclosure of the variety of puffin, penquin, etc that they had. You walk into the building and a strong blast of air blows on you to remove contaminants. Its 25 degrees or something in there. You can hardly stand it. And it's kept very, very dark. Because they were so very active and because of the lighting, I could not get any pics that didn't completely blur. Oh well. Its my first time with a dig cam. I need to practice. The mongoose, were teensy teensy things. They didn't quite move like mongoose. They moved like ferrets almost. Super interesting because they were busy (and with more than just mating lol). The one thing that I was bummed about was the whole entire primate section of the zoo was shut off and being redone. I guess it's just as well, or I would have missed my plane for sure. I so wish Sean was there. He has the worst luck at zoos (and therefore provides endless amusement for me, muahahah). Last time he was at a zoo, a chimp walked up to him on the other side of the glass. Sean was like, "oh how cute". Yah, right. We all know how chimps can be. The chimp pooped right into its hand, and SMACKED that poop right at Seans face and smeared it all over the glass. But what was really killer funny, was when we went to the lion exhibit. Because Sean had climbed past the railing and was pressed against the glass. One of the lions gave him this really odd look and walked right up to him. Sean was thrilled. So he pressed his face against the glass. The lion shot him a look, turned his tail, and PEED on him. Shot that pee out as hard as a fire hose. The look on his face was priceless. Utter shock. The lion glanced at him, and happy that he "marked him", he wandered off. We were rolling and Sean's eyes were still huge. His autistic mind was probably thinking, "okay that didn't touch me right?" >Wolf - just noticed on the St. Louis Zoo's website that they have >European Polecats. --- Man how weird. Bob did you see those? I didn't. darn. >Aren't those the closest relatives to our ferrets? Did you get to see >them while you were there? --- The closest of descendants. Wolfy http://wolfysluv.jacksnet.com [Posted in FML issue 4871]