It's been a while since I posted. Seemed for two years all I did was post when we lost one of our furkids. It got so I didn't have the heart to write about another loss, although I know the ones who left us last year, and my Haldir last month, do deserve for you all to know them. Eventually I'll write. To all who've lost their beloved fur kids, my heartfelt sympathy. I saw the posts on 3/25 about ferret dolls, and have to share this. Our Spunky had a blue beanie bunny. Wasn't a Beanie Baby, but was a toy I'd found after Easter. It was half his size, but he loved it. He'd carry it around, take it to the top of our big cage, tuck it in and sleep beside it. At this time Jill and Joy were alive-both DEWs, both in his cage. They loved to steal his bunny, take off with it and hide it. Unfortunately for them, Spunky rarely left the bunny, and you'd see him streaking after them. One other thing about Spunky-he had three legs. As a baby his breeder had kept the kits and mom outside, and a feral cat ripped his left hind leg off, his brother's left front. A shelter rescued them,a nd I met him as they came back from the show in Ohio, bringing me Joy, whome Judy Cooke asked me to take in. This was back in 2000. Anyway, here's Spunky, streaking along, little stump thumping, but he'd catch them, get the bunny, take it back and hide it. This could happen all day or evening, depending on their time out to play. I'd get to the point where I'd take it away from the girls and make sure he had it. We lost Jilly before we moved to Fort Wayne, and it became Joy's mission in life to harass Spunky on her own. After we moved to our house, you'd hear thundering coming down the stairs, and there would be Joy, bunny in her mouth, Spunky almost on top of her to stop her. One day Muggles jumped on Spunky to slow him down! I knew something was wrong with Spunky when one day Joy stole his bunny and he didn't go after it. We then found his lymphoma, and lost him shortly thereafter. I washed his bunny, and it holds his pouch of ashes in the memory box-no other ferret was ever allowed to play with it again. On the bird flu. I don't know if it can transmit to other animals, but I know there's been this huge debate on it arriving here. Personally, I think it's already been here. I grew up in Lafayette, Indiana, and the park there has a huge lagoon with wild and tame geese, swans, ducks of all sorts. One year the birds 'suddenly became ill', began dying, and they had to put them all down, drain the lagoon, restock it with fish. No explanation other than it was a bird disease. Now that bird flu has become worldwide, I've begun to wonder if that's what this was. Rebecca and the Crew of Merry Mayhem "Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup" "Support bacteria, it's the only culture some people have" [Posted in FML issue 5193]