Oh how right she is - when a ferret lover gives up having ferrets because they can't handle the pain, more ferrets suffer for not being able to join that loving home. I do believe, and it might be just my love of ferrets, it is harder to lose a ferret than a dog or a cat as, when they are sick, they are just like children, cuddling to you for protection. Sometimes the way we look at things makes a difference to our pain........we have a lot of foster homes here who take the old and medically challenged. They know they will see the end soon but they give them the best they can, the love, the warmth, the playing, the being apart of a family. When the little tyke dies, they won't let themselves think of how they will miss that ferret but rather what a life they gave them while they had them, how they brought it out of its little shell or nursed it back to health or just held it and felt what ferrets generate in us. They feel good they were a part of that little life even though it left them sooner than they wanted. Once I was told it is not what is in another person (animal) is that makes us love them, it is what is inside ourselves, our capacity to love. Like any other talent we have, that has to be exercised, used, and shaped to guide us in life. And, for me, I still miss many of the animals that have been in my life, miss them a lot but I wouldn't take for the memories I have of them, the joy, the pride, the fun. I KNOW the life they had with me was enjoyed by them as well. It is this that drives me on to help more, not to take their place but to be a part of a life and make a difference to it. I urge everyone who comes to that thought where they feel they just can't take another death in their lives to look inside themselves, see the good their animals produced in them, and think of how they can use that good to help another animal. Please don't put up a shield to not feel again, don't go through life a blank and at the end regret you didn't live life to the fullest both in joy and in sorrow. Millie and her ferrets and Danes www.txferretrescue.org ** [Posted in FML 6690]