I just spent yesterday driving all over Kansas adopting fuzzies (My get-well presents!), and I have so say, I am impressed. I have dealt with wildlife rehab centers, but, and now I'm embarrassed to admit this, never ferret shelters (although I have always supported them). From Ferret Hotline in KC and Bobbi, I adopted a small family of three fuzzies, including 8-year-old Foster, 6-year-old Buddy, and 3-year-old Razz (It was Spaz, but the SO said I was the only spaz in this family so we changed it). Foster and Buddy are neutered males, and Razz is a Marshall Farms descented and neutered female that was later declawed. Then it was a quick sprint to Wamego KS to visit Ferret Family Services and Troy Lynn (she really is a sprite!). This is a place you never want to take your shoes off (Naw, its not what you think...TLE has this thing about cutting toenails...). At FFS I adopted Apollo, a dark Marshall Farms sable missing his upper canines. Our fuzzies got to run with lots of new friends, and it was great adventure rounding them all up. I was so impressed, I wanted to move in. I settled on a promise to adopt a family of four fuzzies. Apollo (thanks largely to TLE's work) has already been assemilated into the older group of five, and his favorite activity is wrestling Tori, our 5-month-old albino. Of the KC3, as we have started calling them, they will take a little longer....So far they have been kept separate from the others due to disagreements obout dominance heirarchy. However, they love their new home if the type of "signposts" they are planting is any indication ;-). Grandpa, as my son has nicknamed Foster, dooks like a kit, races down 12 feet of dryer tubing, then jumps my foot. All three run through the house like excited mink looking for mice. I'm in love. What impressed me the most was the extreme dedication exhibited towards the little beasties at both shelters, which, and I'm going out on a limb here, is probably typical of all "shelter humans." These people are very dedicated, and all deserve our support. (Scraping sounds as soapbox is deployed. Run for your lives!) We ALL love the little beasties, or we wouldn't be reading this thang. We can all help out in one way or another, with adoption or time or money or goodies. Maybe you can't adopt, but you CAN contribute money or supplies to the local shelter. Maybe you can offer ferret-sitting time, so the people can go out to dinner or watch a movie (What a concept!). If all you have are old t-shirts or towels, they can help! Perhaps you can offer some help cleaning cages, or building ferret furniture, or triming toenails (no need to offer toenail trimming to TLE!) All it takes is a phone call and a little time and money on our part. I challenge all of you to make this season a bright one for the fuzzies by sending a little something to the shelters. Better yet, personally take your goodies to the beasties, and spend some time with them (and the human slaves). BUT DO SOMETHING! (Soapbox is now gone...) RE: Mink drowning. Mink are semi-aquatic, inhabiting wetland areas of all kinds, such as swamps, ditches, rivers, streams. etc. They instinctively will take to water, and are fantastic swimmers (as are ferrets, BTW). The problem was probably one of muscle tone; small cages do not make strong muscles. If the mink were additionally weakened from lack of food, the combination of low energy reserves and poor muscle tone would be deadly. This made me think about my own poopinators; they will start an *exercise program* as soon as I can figure one out. Any suggestions? The list of nicknames is getting longer. I will make a master list soon, so post or e-mail them to me pronto. BTW, the SPECIAL CERTIFICATE is even more special than I thought, thanks to photoshop and some extra time on my hands recovering from surgery. Time is wasting; send them in... Bob Moose, Stella, Daye, Tori, Bear, Apollo, Foster, Buddy, and Razz. Bob says, "More...I need more...now if I can get one directly into a vein..." [Posted in FML issue 1384]