Hi Everyone.. What to do when you have a cold or?? and don't want to give it to your fur kids.. One simple little idea is to drop by your local hospital, go to the maternity ward/nursery area and catch a nurse when she is not too busy.. Explain you have a cold or are trading yours with you pets back and forth and if its not too much trouble could you impose on her for one of the little masks they wear in the nursery and other places like the delivery room.. these are disposable and come in two styles.. one is cup shaped and pinches at the bridge of the nose for fit and has an elastic string to hold it on and the other is flat[ish] and has two sets of ties to secure it.. both are very inexpensive and with rare exception the nurse will happily give you one to use at home while you are ill.. If your local hosp doesn't have a maternity/delivery/nursery area then stop by the surgical area and catch the desk nurse there.. taking a little snap shot of your fuzzy is always a good idea.. If all else fails, visit your vet [if you have a regular one] and request one there.. in some rare instances the vets office may ask a 25/50 cent charge for the mask. If you have chronic bronchitis or something reoccurant like that you may want to stop by the local medical supply place and purchase a package of several masks in the style you like best, to keep on hand. With a little care they can last for weeks of daily use. Add a good hand scrub and you should be able to indulge your fuzzy addiction with abandon! The ferrets on ships post.. in that post it was noted that ferrets don't have great pelts... its true they are not usually an item in the fur garment industry.. however.. Next time you are in the art store or happen to notice a jar full of brushes at a friends house.. ask to see the 'camels hair brushes'. Camels hair is very like that of sheep.. ie: curly and bushy/furry.. no good for art brushes at all. and those brushes are EXPENSIVE! What you are seeing is brushes made from the guard hair of ferrets... After this coming up in a casual conversation my very talented neighbour, who loves critters large and small, who was very sceptical of this piece of information.. called the factory where her extensive and costly collection of oil painting brushes are manufactured .. after a few minutes of changing the subject and evasions the sales representative finally confessed that indeed the brushes were made from the coats of ferrets... It took the neighbour all of two minutes to tell the sales person what she thought of that practice and about three more minutes to jam the brushes into a sack and send her teenager off to the college art department with the whole collection as a donation. She says her art work may not look like much but she will at least not shudder when she picks up a brush to work. The look on her face was positively green when she had to touch those formerly highly treasured brushes, it made her sick to think she had been using them for years in total ignorance of the loss of precious ferret life that had made them possible in the first place. I have to agree with her, the thought does tend to make my tummy do uneasy flip-flops. Raptors and ferrets.. Any bird of prey large enough to take a rabbit of modest size will take a ferret. And cats and small dogs and parrots and any other pet it can get a shot at. If the animal seized poses a threat to the hawk, owl, falcon, or eagle.. it simply rapidly goes for altitude and then drops the prey from a goodly height and that ends the aggression on the part of the intended meal. I have hunted a Great Horned Owl from horse back at night [that's why the bells on the jesses (ankle leather) on the hunting bird - finding it in the dark] and have seen my owl take a running evading full sized 7 lb. jack rabbit with ease. A one to four lb. ferret would pose no problem at all. These silent night stalkers in the air are one of the major ways Mother Nature controls the wild skunk population.. and since skunks must have their back feet on the ground to spray once off the ground the skunk has no defences left at all. Even kit to med. sized racoons are fair game. Kittens and puppies in the High Desert often disappear during the night with not a sound nor trace. fuzzy swing.. take one sturdy basket with strong handle.. the ones that are fat in the body of the basket with the opening slightly smaller than the basket circumference and a rainbow shaped handle that is quite tall are best.. add one plant hook in ceiling.. and a length of sturdy twine or clothes line.. attach line to basket handle and make a slip loop to put on ceiling hook and pull loop snug.. now place fuzzy in basket and gently swing it in a short arc just above the floor for a bit.. either the fur brat will rapidly start agitating for bigger and bigger arcs when you push the basket to make it swing.. or the little one will leap in swing and leap out and race all over in great joy and excitement and then beg for another brief swing time and race off again until the poor kiddo is exhausted. some of mine crowd each other for turns and have to be pried out when their turn is over, some are the in-out types, and two prefer to chase and pounce and bat and help shove the basket from the outside.. for them I attached a couple of wide ribbons to the bottom to make the chasing and biting and shoving a bit more fun. Something for everyone! Happy Ferreting.. dayna and the Monsters with the Munchies!! :] "Resident of... Marvelous Menagerie Of Mirthful Mayhem" dayna frazier 102046,3162 13-Sep-1996 00:42:21 PST [Posted in FML issue 1691]