Hello my friends! Well, it's back to almost normal at the shelter so i better get back to my normal updates too! A few weeks back, the shelter got to blood testing all the kids at the shelter. they normally quick test all new kids coming in, but with the U of Guelph now testing in Canada, the tests are cheaper for shelter to do there. Dr. Regan came by and vaccinated all the new shelter ferrets and blood tested all the kids with the same CEP test that United Vaccine uses. It was WAY kewl! The results came in 4 or 5 days later - ALL negative! Dr. Regan came by again on Friday to give booster vaccines to the kids and vaccinate the new kids that came in over the last 3 weeks. This week, the shelter took in a few more kids. In London, 3 kids (all under a year) came from a family home. They are all at auntie Tina's place. Auntie Tina takes real good care of the kids at her place, almost spa-like! Blitzen (Blitz for short) was abandon by a garbage bin, unaltered. it's VERY cold in Toronto but he's now warm and safe. Blitz is now suffering bad with ECE. Because he's a back-yard breeder kid and has never been exposed to ECE (whereas most of the pet store kids have) he's got the bad poopies! Twilight (formerly Lila) is a 6 month old who was a family pet and Frostie was also a family pet but was referred to us from Children's Aid Society (LONG story). Poor Frostie, he was a little worried when he 1st came here. Mommie kissed him sooooooo much to make him feel safe. He had auntie Shannan in stitches the other day when he was playing peek-a-boo with mommie when she was chasing him down to try to kiss him again. He would run and hide any time mommie came around the corner yelling "i'm gonna kiss ya!" and when mommie would back off, he'd come out! He finally surrendered, letting mommie kiss him and mommie treated him to some Tone for being such a good sport. That mommie sure has a problem when it comes to kissing!!!!! Mommie figures there's a song somewhere with Frostie! You know - "Frostie the snow fert was a jolly happy guy, with love of Tone and an up turned nose and two eyes as black as coal...bump ed e bum bump... bup ed e bup bup look at Frostie go!" Then there was Santa, Holly and Short Bread. (we changed their names for their protection, we always do!) Never, ever been out of a cage - EVER. All three of them lived their lives, together in one of those TINY Hagan starter kit cages. Not sure how they did it, but the litter box took up over 1/2 of their cage, and the food dish 1/3 of the cage. Anyway, their dad tried to kill their mum, then himself. he;s in a mental ward and his mum went into hiding. she couldn't take the ferrets and probably a good thing anyway since she never let them out to play. She didn't really want them, they belonged to the dad person who was violent. Santa actually war danced when we released them into their larger cage. mommie had never seen that. she'd seen the Easter kids "dook" in their new accommodations all the time but had never seen a ferret war dance in a cage. it brought tears to her eyes. Then the trio were let out to explore. They were so excited to be out of a cage for the 1st time in years, they didn't know what to do. Santa climbed, Holly war danced and the youngest, Short Bread, she just ran! All three can be hand shy but are just happy to be able to do ferrty things - finally. Please keep our little Noka in your thoughts. He *may* have what i had (actinomyces) or what our former resident Boddington had (norcardia). Noka is in the hospital right now on IV antibiotics and may require surgery on Monday. if he has what i had, it's going to be a LONG, road to recovery with a VERY expensive veterinary bill to follow. Noka was also a VERY good model for our calendar. Please, keep him in your thoughts. My love to you all, Harley "Bug" The Ferret Aid Society <http://www.ferretaid.org/> Join us for the IFC Ferret Aid 2006 Conference! Book early, almost 1/2 sold out!! http://www.ferretaid.org/events/ferret_aid_2006.html [Posted in FML issue 5088]