Hello everybody, As most of you know, my ferrets Lami, Sid and Snuggles have been residing with my dad, since the Fish Fuzz arrested them. At first my dad was living in Lubbock, TX, which is a very long drive from Fresno, CA. They have been living with him since December 22, 1995. My birthday is in June, and my dad promised to meet me somewhere in Arizona, so I could visit my fuzzies for my birthday. Even though he was in visiting someone in Oregon, he called me two days before my birthday and told me that he would not be going home through Arizona and he would see us some other time. I had been planning on this for weeks and even put off all my family that is living in California and wanted to have a party for my birthday. So instead of going to Arizona on my birthday, my whole family ended up going to the mountains which at no fault of theirs, totally upset me. I had planned on seeing my little ones and this trip was not what I had in mind. I was hysterical, crying and basically totally depressed. When I got laid off from my job the end of June, we decided to take the vacation pay and go to Lubbock, TX. We packed up the kids and the truck and left. My husband drove straight through. When visiting with my dad, I was relieved to see that he had been taking good care of the ferrets. They were all in good health and happy. After visiting for a couple of days, we had to go back and it was very hard not to pack up the ferrets in the luggage and take them back to California. But then the Fish Fuzz is waiting exactly for me to do that. My dad said that he had become very attached to Lami, Sid and Snuggles and that it would be very hard to give them up, if California would legalize them. A couple of month, the moved from Lubbock, TX to East Alton, IL for no appearant reason. He called me one day and gave me the new phone number, but a week later he had to go to South Carolina for a while, death in the family. I did not hear from him for quite some time. After a month, I called him and gee, he was back, he just forgot to pick up the phone and tell me. He never did give me his new address and I really did not care, because I could not go that far to visit anyways. Two days ago, I called him to get his address, so I could mail him a christmas card and his wife informed me that they were in the process of packing to move to Georgia. When I asked her why, she could not give me a reason. I asked her for an address and she said that she did not have one yet, but she would give me a mail box address for Lubbock, TX, where they would get their mail forwarded from. I asked her if she would call me when they got to Georgia and she agreed. I got off the phone and pulled out a map (I am from Germany and have really no idea where all the states are) and I was HYSTERICAL, THEY WERE MOVING TO THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. All the way on the other side of the United States. I could not believe that they were going to move and would have not even told me, hadn't I called and she would not even give me an address. I was crying, my poor kids did not know what to do (my husband wasn't home). I got on the computer and wrote Margie, a wonderful, wonderful friend that I have made via FML, that only lives an hour from East Alton. I basically told her how upset I was, I don't even remember if I made sense, I did not really want her to do anything, I just had to tell somebody how upset I was. I thought for sure I would never see my Lami and Sid again. My dad had also promised me to meet me in Arizona for Thanksgiving and cancelled a week before. Then he called me and told me that he would meet me for Christmas, and now he was moving to Georgia. Fat chance in hell, that he would make christmas. What really worried me is that they would not give me an address or phone number where I could reach them. I'm not saying that he was trying to steal my ferrets, but my dad does not have a very good track record. I love him for taking my ferrets, when the Fish Fuzz wanted to destroy them, but I did not want to loose them. Anyways, Margie got on the phone and called me, and then GET THIS, this angel of a person offered to go call my dad and get my ferrets and keep them save for me. My husband, who had come home, called my dad and told him that Margie would call him and get the ferrets because we wanted her to take care of them and he agreed to it. (We did tell him that he could keep Snuggles, because he wasn't really ours and he had had him for a year now. We only had him for two weeks prior to their arrest. My dad also has a six year old daughter and I did not feel right taking all her pets away.) Margie did call my dad and he did not give her his address and told her that he would drop the ferrets off at her house on Saturday. I would have went crazy by Saturday, I just wasn't sure that he was going to give them up. Margie found out my dad's address and stopped by his house last night, and picked up Lami and Sid. Margie has agreed to take care of my Lami and Sid for me, and she never even thought twice. What a wonderful person, she already has enough ferrets of her own. Well, I just wanted to share this story with you, as it would have not happened without the FML, there are so many great people out there and you deserve a lot of credit. Anybody looking for the christmas spirit, THERE YOU HAVE IT. Merry christmas everybody, and to all a good night. Ilona, greatful in California [Posted in FML issue 1781]