Hello all: You'll be reading this post on our dear Mandie's third birthday, Halloween. She had a 6 mm. tumor removed from her left hind foot on Monday. It was not a skin cancer, nor any form of cyst, but rather a true tumor forming from the meat of her foot. Recovery isn't a fine way to spend a birthday, and we certainly dislike having to put one so young through two surgeries -- the other being her successful adrenal surgery at the age of 19 months -- but our "Manda Bear" is doing beautifully and should soon rejoin her cagemates at our secondary facility. As for the other members of the ferret hoard, I can truly say that last week's vet visit was a circus! Six ferrets at our new vet -- implants, blood sugar testing, exams, and a new volunteer to horrify! The only noteworthy discovery other than planning Mandie's surgery was finding that our totally-blind elderly Lady was very insulinoma with a glucose reading of 39! We've now got an AlphaTrak to use when poking at our furry kids, after a bit of research and chat with the vet over the differences in the ratio of plasma to red blood cells in human and pet blood; look it up sometime. Yes, we have more than six ferrets, but just not enough funds to take everyone in to see Dr. Lenzo right now. Our kind new doc is looking into those new FDA Suprelorin regs for us, so, if we are blessed with our Ferret Giving Tree santas, our kids can buy up implants for those who didn't get one this time or need one more often than the usual nine months. On the personal front, I am coping with the death of my mother and the shelter's co-founder as well as might be expected. If I stay busy, then I can't hear myself screaming inside my head as much. Thank you for all the thoughtful emails and telephone calls; you've brightened my days with smiles and the comfort of friendship. Remember that the Ferrets at Heart ferrets can be found on the 2012 Ferret Giving Tree and on the July, August, and November pages of the 2013 Famous Ferrets of the FML calendar. I'll update the website with the current photos from the Giving Tree and others as soon as I can concentrate well enough to play in computer code. Lori of Ferrets at Heart [Posted in FML 7596]