[Moderator's note: This is the last post in this digest and is about 200 lines long. BIG] HI GUYS, Well I have given David since the 15th of this month to write a story about this but I have now given up on him and am writing it myself! Have any of you seen the movie "Baby's Day Out"? Well other than the beginning which has the baby being kidnapped by these creeps our story is very similar. I start by replacing the baby's name BINK with the now infamous name ROWDY and awaaaaaay we go! Picture if you will a young woman sitting at her computer typing away, fuzzy bells jingling all over the room as the four-legged curiosity machines are running on overdrive! Several hours go by and the room is now silent and the young woman has noticed many a fuzzy creature as they had returned to the rest of the house. It is now four to five a.m. and she is sooooo tired and in pain and wants to go lay down on the couch and watch t.v. losing herself in the storyline. Before leaving the room she calls for any stray fuzzies and looks around but finds none so she moves the heavy box of sand from in front of the doggie door so the muttley's can come and go as they please. Two hours pass and the young woman has fallen asleep on the couch. Her fiance gets up to prepare for work and at 7:30 a.m. he wakes her to ask where ROWDY is since he has gathered up all the fuzzies and put them in their cage for the day. She is dead tired and snaps at him that the fuzzy is in the house right where she belongs of course! He continues searching and suddenly the young woman feels the fear as it grips her heart as a vice would grip an egg! She too has been searching for the ROWDSTER and seems to know in her heart that she is GONE!!!! Panic takes control of her as she remembers the doggie door is totally accessable! She runs for the computer room searching EVERYWHERE and no ROWDY! She runs out the door and systematically starts searching around the house and then in a larger circle until the entire property has been combed with no sign of ROWDY! Oh God, she thinks, the MAIN road at the front of the house! She and her fiance check the street expecting the worst but find no sign of her. Thankyou God! They go back into the house to search again and the fiance calls his work to tell them he cannot come in. He refuses to leave until he finds the baby one way or the other! The young woman is hysterical at this point and cannot stop crying but unfortunately she had taken her sleeping medication much earlier and simply cannot overcome the effects and stay awake. She tells her fiance that she is going to lie down in the bedroom and listen for Rowdy's bells (in her heart she knows she may never hear them again)! She fights to stay awake but loses the battle having extreme nitemares the entire time she sleeps. The fiance continues to search. He takes Shyla with him all around the neighborhood to tell people ROWDY is lost and please look for her and help her. Shyla is the sweet, loving fuzzy example for those who know not what a ferret is or might think they are icky or something. Most all the people are very kind and say they will watch for her and call. One ^#%$# neighbor next door has a new large puppy she keeps outside but instead of offering to put her up she only says "Gee, I hope my dog doesn't get her and kill her!", When the young woman hears this later she says to her fiance "Gee, I hope I don't accidentally pull my gun and shot the ^&*%^@#$*(&*(*%^%#^_&*(%^&!"!!!!!!!! The wonderful neighbor behind who has hunting dogs puts them in the house immediately and says he will keep them there until the ROWDSTER is found. When the young woman awakens she enters the living room and cannot figure out where all the fuzzies are, she goes into the computer room and sees her fiance and says "What are you doing home"? He looks at her in the oddest way and suddenly ALL the blocked memories come flooding back and she runs for the bedroom sobbing hysterically again! She has already branded herself a fuzzy killer knowing in her soul that ROWDY is dead and she will never see her again!!!!!! Her fiance comforts her as best he can with no results. He tells her he will never in his entire life forget the look on her face when the memories came flooding back! She heads for the back door to search the entire neighborhood again and he accompanies her. They talk to everyone they pass and she is wearing a ferret shirt so they will know what ROWDY looks like! They search every woodpile and crevice they can find, calling to her and whistling and etc... No luck, ROWDY is nowhere to be found. Her fiance had put the travel cage out back with all the other fuzzies in it hoping the bells will bring Rowdy home but still no fuzzy! As they finish their search they take all the babies inside and the fiance notices a message on the phone. The young woman runs for the answering machine playing the message. "Hi my name is Julie and I found your ferret this morning and she is safe and sound at my house!!!!!!!!" The young woman screams in delight and the fiance is dialing the phone as fast as humanly possible to get directions to the lady's house. Come to find she lives approx. 2 blocks away directly across the busy street out front! Off they go to collect their ROWDY baby!! They get lost and stop at a convenience store to call for directions again. As the young woman pulls up behing this truck waiting to pull out into the street suddenly he changes gears and backs right into the front of her car. She freaks! He asks her to come to his work office but she explains about her lost child and says as soon as they pick her up they will come by. Her car means absolutely nothing to her at this point, only her baby is important and she comes first no matter what! They find the house of the rescue angel Julie and jump out running as they hit the pavement. The ROWDSTER is in a small carrying cage on the front porch and the young woman nearly rips off the door to get to her! She cuddles her baby close and is crying and thanking Julie profusely!! She offers Julie $20 as a reward but she refuses it and says just to see us reunited is enough for her!!!! She hands the baby to her fiance to love for a bit. Julie was wonderful! She told us she had found Rowdy at 7am that morning because when she went out front to get her paper she saw these two really big dogs trying to attack something and she thought it was a kitten and was determined to save it. She chased the dogs away and saw ROWDY! Shocked her, she had heard bite stories about ferrets but that did not stop her for even a second in rescuing ROWDY! Of couse it really helped when ROWDY walked right up to her and started kissing her hand. Julie fell in love and her neighbors told her if she couldn't find the owners several of them would love to have her. Unfortunately Julie did not think to check the collar for a tag and took off for work. Once there she realized her mistake. As soon as she got home she checked the tag and found the name ROWDY and our phone # engraved there. It was probably 4pm when she finally called. I have never prayed for a phone call so hard in my life and for once my prayers were answered. I know all of you can imagine how you would feel if you were the cause of one of your fuzzie's deaths. I was sure I was a ferret killer as of that morning and I would NEVER have forgiven myself even after I had died!!!! We were sooooooo lucky that day because everything fell into place like clockwork. First she decided to go on her adventure so early that there was no traffic and that is why she was not roadmush. Second it was very cool that day even though it had been stifling hot the earlier part of the week. Third the one to go adventuring was our toughest ferret, the leader of the gang! Fourth she managed to not get eaten as a doggie breakfast. Fifth she was at the right place at the right time when Julie went out to get her paper. Sixth Julie really cared, she even called a vet to find out what to feed her and how to care for her properly! Seventh David had called in a lost ad to be in the next days paper and he was even able to cancel the ad in time w/no charge when Julie called us! Eighth the ding a ling that backed into me did do $900 worth of damage but nothing serious enough that we couldn't still use the car to go get her. Of course we would have WALKED 100 MILES if necessary to get our baby back safe and sound. NINTH and MOST IMPORTANT: HALIE was watching over ROWDY yet again and saved her life and mine!!! Thank you Halie!!!!! WE LOVE YOU AS ONE OF OUR OWN!!!! Also thank you to Sheena and Rudy for your support during this MOST horrible time!!!!! We really needed you and David would have had to deal with it all alone while I was asleep if you hadn't been there for him. YOU ARE TRUE FRIENDS AND WE LOVE YOU TOO!!!!!!!! Last but not least PLEASE everyone get ID tags on your babies. If not for that we probably would never had gotten the ROWDSTER back and would have considered her dead! This is THE most important gift you can give to your fuzzies. All the toys in the world cannot replace the wonderful loving home that they have. DO NOT say this can NEVER happen to you because that is what WE said too and look what happened!!!!!!!! Well thank you all for reading this and to those that lose their babies DO NOT GIVE UP!!!!!!!! You can be the lucky ones too!!! I will always feel responsible even more for ROWDY'S life and happiness in the future and will always be there for her to ensure her safety. I owe Julie soooooo much!!!! I bought her a personalized card thanking her for her hospitality that had a castle on the front that we named Critter Castle. Inside it said, "You have given us back a piece of our heart and soul! There is no more precious gift than the return of our ROWDY. Ferret kisses to all, Kelleen, David and ROWDY!" I felt it was the least I could do since she refused my reward offer! Our babies are no longer allowed in the computer room for their own safety and the safety of my mental and physical health!!!!!! David was the most wonderful love I could have imagined. No yelling or accusing only his trying to comfort me. He knew I was punishing myself more than anyone else possibly could. At first I had wished that Julie had noticed the collar right away and called but now I am glad that she didn't!! We went through the most total hell that day and would never want to relive it but that hell taught us the MOST important lesson of our lives (and our fuzzies lives)!!!!! Had she called us right away we wouldn't even had known that ROWDY was gone yet and it would have been soooooo miraculously easy that I'm really not sure we would have thoroughly learned this lesson! I thank all involved every day of my life each time I see ROWDY and I will never forget this!!! It has been extremely hard to write this story for all of you because I have cried all the way through it reliving each bit of it! I did it because I feel it is most important for people to hear stories like this so hopefully they won't have to learn this lesson the hard way too!!!!! EXTRA FUZZY KISSES TO : HALIE, SHEENA, RUDY AND JULIE THE RESCUE ANGEL W/NO FEAR OF GETTING INVOLVED!!!!!! Fuzzy kisses too all the rest of you from Kelleen, David and the INSANE Animal House!!!!!!! (now you know why we are named that) Kelleen : "I am a MOST blessed mother" David : "NEVER GIVE UP" Rascal : Mommy one of my babies is missing!!!!!! Silly : How come SHE got to go on an adventure mom?????? Moneybags : They drive me nuts but I love them too mom!!!! Shyla : Mommy where is my sissy????? Precious : Who am I supposed to have dominance fights with now mom?????? Meetoo : Kiss, Chomp, BITE!! I'll distract you mom!!!!!! The New FANG : Mommy get ROWDY back NOW and stop all this crying please!!!! Silverada : Halie you sure got a full time job now don't you??? ROWDSTER : Gee mom what's a matter???? That was THE MOST fun, can I do it again???? Gurgle Gurgle (as mom wrings her little neck!!!!!!!!;) NEVER AGAIN ROWDY!!!!!!!! One last thing to the girl who recently thought she was such a horrible mother!!!!! " You would only be a horrible mother if you hadn't cared about what happened and thought you WEREN'T a horrible mother. All mothers blame themselves when something bad happens to the children they love and are responsible for"!!!!!!!!!!! [Posted in FML issue 1300]