Greetings, Everyone! I have been absent from the List for about 3 months while I moved, settled into my new house, and started a home business, so I will reintroduce myself-- I'm Debra Thomason (computer operator in Ft.Worth, TX), and my husband Scott and I are the adoptive parents of 5 fuzzy wonders. They are, in order of appearance in our household: Pixie (Pixinator,Pix)- Chocolate Siamese,MF,cuddle-girl supreme. Very sweet disposition,sensitive to human needs/emotions. Shadow (ShadowMeister,HandsomeBoy,BegMeister)- Sable,MF,long and lean,came from Patty's Beggars and Thieves,blind, likes to BE with his people,is a supreme treat beggar. Laska (TinyWease,ElfWeasel)- Sable,MF,very small,our rescue girl, extremely neglected for nearly 2 years before coming to live with us,checks on us to be sure she knows where we are,an ear cleaner! Thor (Thorn,Pest,BigBoy,Tor)- Adopted from a fellow ferret club member at 6 mos. He came from a breeder and was whole for a few weeks upon joining our family. Has a "dumb jock" personality mostly, but occassionally surprises us with sweet behavior. Sierra (BabyWease,F105-G)- A petstore ferret from Canada,arrived with the tell-tale nylon stitch in her belly,started out a silver mitt, but grew significant black guard hairs (undercoat still white and she appears light colored from a distance). She has a constant expression of surprise or wonder on her face. "Talks" alot when playing with chase toys, FASTEST ferret I've ever seen, hence F105-G, since it was designated the "Wild Weasel" and she does seem jet propelled.... On a personal aside, <waving> Hi to a certain CA anon poster with 8 (or is it 9 now?) fuzzies, and if Gail Beebe is still on this list, please drop me a quick E-mail to respond to-- Scott is in Denver and will be again at the end of the month! TroyLynn recently requested info on the numbers of ferrets tested for rabies versus number of postives. I sent off for reports that would yield this info for the state of Texas over the years 1989-1993. I requested that info in late September 1994 and accompanyed my request with the $ amount quoted me by the head of the zoonosis contorl department in Austin (who is also on the NASPHV board I might add). My check cleared the bank in late October. I called the Zoonosis Control department in mid-January and again in early March about these reports and finally received them last week. From the 5 annual compilations I extracted the following figures: 1989 1990 # Tested # Positive # Tested # Positive Ferrets 50 0 46 0 Cats 3461 12 3533 13 Dogs 3468 43 3301 32 Bovines 189 7 152 6 Equines 83 15 77 5 Weasel 3 0 Human 1 1 1991 1992 # Tested # Positive # Tested # Positive Ferrets 38 0 41 0 Cats 3349 17 3528 16 Dogs 3326 36 3681 56 Bovines 184 15 210 11 Equines 101 7 85 6 Weasels 1 0 2 0 1993 5-Year Totals # Tested # Positive # Tested # Positive Ferrets 34 0 209 0 Cats 3515 21 17386 79 Dogs 4025 54 17801 221 Bovines 208 11 943 50 Equines 84 6 430 39 Weasels 3 0 9 0 Humans 1 1 1 1 These are not anywhere near all of the animals tested by the Texas Department of Public Health, nor are all positives spelled out by me. These are just figures that I thought might be interesting or useful to pro-ferret people fighting the myth that ferrets are rabies carriers or even prone to rabies infection and shedding. Just as an example, the greatest number of positive rabies tests in 1993 were from skunks, foxes, bats, and coyotes. These species together represented 78% of all positive rabies tests in Texas in 1993. In the same year, 14% of all positive rabies tests were from dogs and cats, species which may be released with only a 10 day quarantine! Public health guidelines ALLOW for a 30 day quarantine of biting ferrets but RECOMMEND that they be destroyed and tested. There is obviously a record of killing and testing an animal that has not been proven a rabies risk as 209 dead, rabies-free ferrets testify. Please, somebody in each state gather this information and share it freely! It may help change laws and policies long before we can see the results of years of shedding studies and save ferret lives. I will make copies of the Texas reports for anyone who wants them for the cost of copying and postage. Each report is in the 15-20 page range as it was mailed to me, but the most vital info is on 2 pages only, the rest being listings of numbers of tests by county and distribution maps (stuff most likely useful to Texans, but I think that being able to produce the report complete might be useful in some legalization campaingns). I would like to find out how many of the ferrets tested above were vaccinated and under what circumstances testing was ordered, but I found that to do that I would have to get detail reports from each county reporting negative tests in the other catagory (into which ferrets fall) since the state doesn't indicate which counties required testing of ferrets. My mind boggles considering the cost and time involved in polling 71 counties just for the year 1993 since it took $10 and 6 months to get a pre-prepared report from the state! Oh, well, I have gone on quite long enough for one post. I hope you find the information above informative and useful. Kisses to everyone's fur-babies! Debra in Ft.Worth [Posted in FML issue 1156]