RUST COLORED URINE: GET TO THE VET IMMEDIATELY!!!!! It could be blood (color) and infection or protein passing too much (infection) but amber urine can also be a sign of liver inflammation, esp. if the stools are grey. Those who want to find info about the rabies shedding studies (multiple since there were quite a few of them) can check out by looking under Rupprecht, Briggs, CDC, KSU, and also by using the AVMA webpage to search for leads/direction. S.J. didn't do any of the studies; she's the chair of the Animal Rabies Control Compendium Committee of the National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians. In fact, you can search on back issues of the FML since there were many pieces about these in the list. Let's see, the Compendium was first changed early Nov. 1998. A number of the studies were done before then and some were done afterward. There are also German and French studies that were yet earlier (with pretty much the same results) and a much earlier one which showed that ferrets don't get rabies by eating the flesh of contaminated animals. Why do people chose to believe nasty things about ferrets? Probably because of one of the same reasons that folks are racist, or sexist, or intolerant of other religions, persuasions, etc. For a LOT of people IGNORANCE is EASIER than investigating, learning, and growing. Some even think that if they laugh at those who have learned or are willing to learn that their stupid action will intimidate others into agreement. In fact, sometimes such people turn things on their heads and claim that THEY are the open minded ones because of their cheap giggles. What bores. Some people just don't have the willingness to challenge themselves with new information or experiences; everything has to go in the tiny box they've used for world definitions since they were snot-nosed kidlings learning to hate whomever and whatever their parents and peers hated. Nothing against kidlings here; just something against people who don't like getting out of intellectual cribs/coffins/confining boxes; think it's maybe an intellectual version of agoraphobia <G>. Heck, it isn't even intelligence related (on the standard measures) since most people I've known who are intellectually challenged still try danged hard, as opposed to bigots. It's instead plain old mental laziness. I don't think that many people believe garbage about ferrets because they are jealous of the greater abilities of ferrets; but given some people I guess that's possible, too. At least ferrets have curiousity and enjoy a challenge. (Okay, you can laugh now.) Oh, Ed, come on! Aren't you being overly greedy with peoples' time and bandwidth? You CAN'T possibly have so much free time that your hobby is becoming the defining aspect of your life. For those who don't know, Ed has freely admitted that his hobby is to "shake the ferret tree and see which nuts fall out" (his words, not mine). This means that he does his National Enquirer impersonaation now and then, which would not be a problem if it wasn't at times destructive and undermining (You have enough smarts to avoid that with better topic choices and better editing, Ed.) for some of the hard fought efforts. Here's a suggestion: Ed, or anyone else putting in a post which is questionable in taste, intent, and content could give a rough idea of the percentage which can NOT be believed. There's still fun in it since people can try to figure out which portions are which so you can chuckle at their guesses. Look at it as adding one more riddle to the overall joke. How much of Ed do I take seriously? Depending on the post (and not including the ones I skip) maybe 5% to 20%. Oh, well... Sukie (who regrets to say that BOTH Bill and Ela EACH had some errors in relation to SUNY HSCs, and that rather than waste others' time reading about what matters only to those of us with associations to the schools I will leave it to each of them to find their OWN errors instead of each other's for a change of pace -- NO hints, now...) PAX ON LIST PAX ON LIST PAX ON LIST PAX ON LIST PAX ON LIST PAX ON LIST [Posted in FML issue 2573]