From: Telaraj Just wanted to jot down a few things that were on my mind... first of all, our 'old man' Thufir (he's only four, but he was our second ferret, and the longest fert member of the family ) has been sick, so we took him to our vet, the wonderful Dr. Larry Snyder. Turns out, he needed adrenal surgery, which I actually got to observe! (thanks Dr. Larry!) Thufir's right adrenal was enlarged, and his spleen is slightly enlarged. So the adrenal got removed and looked at (by me) in very great detail... (turns out a normal adrenal gland is about the size of an ink pen point, but Thufie's was the size of a pinto bean.) The miracle I wanted to write about is that since I paid for my boarding ferret (BlackJack)'s adrenal surgery, I didn't have the money to pay for Thufir's surgery when it was discovered that he was a lot worse off than we originally thought he was.... and our friend Troy Lynn Eckart (THANK YOU TROY LYNN!!) came to our rescue and let us put Thufir's surgery on her bill. Now, with operating a shelter, this woman has enough of her own bills to take care of without offering to carry ours until we can pay her off, but she did it out of the goodness of her heart! We paid fifty on the surgery, which is all we could spare from the bills ( if we don't pay them, we don't have a place to live; basically that's the situation we're in after the house fire we had last year)... but we will pay the rest as soon as we can. I just wanted everyone to know the gratitude my family and I feel to this wonderful ferret person, who understood our anguish and came up with a way for us to save our baby... I don't know if we'll ever be repaid for the surgery we paid for ( that money was going to go for Thufir's surgery as soon as we found out he'd need it, but then they haven't paid it back yet.. they're having some hard times right now- so I guess this is just an example of ferret people helping each other in need!) but that doesn't matter... we will find the money some way to pay Troy Lynn back. They say the holidays are a time for giving, and Troy Lynn sure did that- she gave us the help we needed, and we are thankful. So hug all your babies for us and kiss them too. They are God's gift to us... and thanks to a friend in need, we will be keeping one of our gifts a while longer..... [Posted in FML issue 2515]