It might be just coincidence, but we had a ferret with unexplained weight loss who turned out to have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. This is the less common kind of cardiomyopathy and is too often so hard to diagnose that the cause is found after death; in this one the walls become very thick. The problem with her weight stopped after the hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was treated and she was very happy with a lot of play even when her illness became advanced. (When it got too far for her to have happy behavior we got her a mercy shot.) Since then I have heard about three other ferrets who also had the weight loss with the same thing eventually found, so if there is unexplained weight loss also consider having the ferret checked for this. The numbers are too small to know if this is coincidence, but... With humans if a given individual is under a lot of physical stress from illness then the person might be thrown over into having allergies surface according to the physicians when I first got bad ones. That's what happened to me. **Ashling just got on Steve's keyboard and added "frrrrt" to his letter!!!** Lydia wrote: >I am getting tired of everybody having to write no flames on their >posts. Why can't we just write and not have to worry about someone >getting mad over silly things. YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES!!!!!!!!!!!! Each person's circumstances and responses to those are unique so one must EXPECT that instead of assuming that what holds for one must hold for all. Tolerance, folks... Oh, and for the ones who do flaming or flame baiting just to get attention -- not naming anyone specific but a few have a repeated history of this -- don't you think we're beginning to wonder if you are actually 12 years old? Come on, you know how to behave like a constructive grown-up. Fortunately, IGNORING such behavior tend to work well at ending it. When all this fighting continues it undermines lists. Do you realize how rare a list as OLD as the FML is? Do you realize how rare a list as LARGE as the FML is? (We are over 50% larger than the town I grew up in.) My hubby and some folks he knows well study this sort of thing and the FML is considered one of the peak lists for such scholars to follow to see what makes a list WORK. Don't undermine that! We all need the FML and are lucky to have such wonderful people here for the most part and to have such a talented moderator. I heard from Anne that she's got water back at the shelter. Some areas now have boil-able water back but not potable water right from the tap. There are still some places in N.J. without water as of last night, though. On the news they said that North Carolina is finally draining some; given that half the state was under flood waters according to one television report I expect it will take a while. Sukie 1989: the last year Bill Gates paid any federal income tax 1991: the last year Bill Gates paid any state income tax [Posted in FML issue 2816]