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Ferret Legalization Revival Results Good But Attendance Weak

About 50 people gathered yesterday at the King's Inn for the Third Annual Legalize Ferrets Revival. They were on hand to hear the latest in ferret legalization and rekindle the camaraderie of ferret legalization proponents. The day was billed as "serious business and crazy fun."

Dr Geo Graening of Natural Investigations Company was our first speaker and outlined our strategies for ferret legalization. He pointed out the adversarial relationship we have with the Department of Fish and Game and how that wasn't helpful.

He outlined what we will need to do to get an EIR done and some of the likely outcomes. He also said he would not take on the project until he receives the published results that are currently pending.

Although personally I want him to get started right away - it seems everyone is on the same page and the efforts of the mysterious "working group" will be quite valuable. Dawn M has been drafted to be the liaison between the "working group" and Geo.

Geo's presentation was video taped and we hope to have it on the web in a week. It should be the most important news California ferret owners have and I hope people will rally around our efforts.

Crazy Fun

Milo warms up as Dawn thinks what the ?	Sheri D (L) translates a poem from Jan H (R) in a very hysterical exercise in teamwork and improvisation

Milo Shapiro really broke the ice and brought down personal barriers with a number of exorcizes designed to get people thinking, take risks and put themselves out there. He really got people out of their seats and livened up the event. This was a first for a ferret meeting.

Dr Jeff Jenkins
Lance M

Dr Jeff Jenkins of the San Diego Avian and Exotic Animal Hospital gave a presentation on rabies - which was interrupted twice when candidates came in for their brief talks. He spoke on the health and political concerns of that terrible disease.

Lance M finished the day with his presentation on spending six months as president of Ferrets Anonymous. His proudest accomplishments were that people are better communicating, the new Ferrets Anonymous website and the new Paw Print Newsletter. He also listed his goals for the next six months, the most important being education.

I hope everyone had a good time, learned a lot and had their ferret legalization dreams "revived." The event felt like a success. I'll be anxious to get the video of Geo's talk on the web.

It was a big money looser. We spent about $850 on a flyer mailed out to 2850 people that brought in mostly address corrections. We also paid a lot for speaker fees and expenses. Current bank account - about $11. At least it is a positive eleven dollars.

Hello,

What do you think of this sweatshirt as a money-maker for our Ferrets Anonymous group? The idea grew from a piece of orange cotton sweatshirt fabric which had always reminded me of the California criminal system jump suits that prisoners wear. Since I couldn't' get that image out of my mind, I decided to let the fabric be what it was obviously meant to be. On the front is embroidered "State of California Department of Corrections - Correct this law!" and on the back is a ferret face made of faux fur behind moveable black jail bars. 'FERRETS - Make Em Legal" is embroidered on the back. Then of course there are ferret ears on the hood.

Sorry you didn't make the Revival - You would have been easy to spot. Readers - any comments?

Just a quick note to thank you for all the good work you do for our little fuzzy friends.

We had a ferret lover's nightmare come true for us the other day.  My wife came home at lunch time to let some delivery guys in to deliver our new bed.  Coco, our ferret sleeps in her little sleeping bag in her carry case in the corner of our bedroom.  The guys left the front door open while they were carrying things in and out, but my wife discovered it after only a few minutes, and kept it shut.  They finished assembling the new bed, put the mattress back on, and left.  My wife tossed the quilt over the bed , and did a weasel-check before she left for work.  Coco was nowhere to be found!  She wasn't in any of her usual hiding/sleeping places.  My wife turned the house upside down then called me up at work, absolutely frantic, saying that she had probably gotten out when the door was open.  There was nothing I could do until I got home about 4 hours later.  I tried to reassure her that Coco had probably just found a new hiding spot when there was all the hubub with the delivery men.

When I arrived home, I searched for her as well.  I covered every inch of the house, but she was simply not there.  I searched the neighborhood, and rang all my neighbor's doorbells, asking them to keep an eye out for her.  The problem with my neighborhood is that our back fences run along a heavily wooded cemetery, and there is no way I'd find find her if she went out of the yard.  There are also any number of predators out there;  dogs, cats, raccoons, owls, hawks, coyotes.  You name it. All kinds of critters that would just love to make a quick meal out of our fuzzie.

My wife came home from work and was inconsolable.  She was blaming herself for not noticing that the door was open and inadvertently letting the ferret slip out.  It was dark, threatening to rain, and getting cold.  We searched and searched.  We put up flyers all over the neighborhood, and walked around the cemetery late at night with flashlights.  The cops stopped by and asked what we were doing.  When I told them, they asked if ferrets were illegal, and when I told them that yes they were, they told me not to worry...  if they saw her, they'd bring her home.

At about midnight we decided to go to bed, thoroughly bummed out and grieving for our little weasel.  My wife just laid there and cried.  I sat in bed with my laptop and started to type out a lost ferret notice on Craigslist, when I heard a little commotion on my side of the bed.  I looked over the edge and saw nothing.  I figured it was the cat playing hockey with something on the floor under the bed.  A moment later, I heard it again, then saw that the cat was curled up on the far side of the bed, opposite of where the noise was coming from.  I leapt out of bed and looked underneath, but I saw nothing.  I heard the noise again, and lifted the covers off the side of the bed, and there was a little lump on the side of the mattress, inching it's way towards the foot of the bed.  I pulled up the fitted sheet and the mattress topper off the side of the bed, and there was a little pink nose!   My wife and I were absolutely overjoyed.  We fought over who got to hug her and give her kisses.  Coco seemed rather non-plussed by the whole affair, and ran into the bathroom to her little newspaper next to the toilet to pee.  As a treat, I gave her a few raisins, then put her to bed in her cage, safe as a weasel could be.

Somehow, Coco had gotten up under the fitted sheet and mattress topper when the delivery guys had had laid our mattress on the bedroom floor while they disassembled our old bed frame and assembled our new one.  Miraculously, she wasn't crushed when they put the mattress back on the bed frame, but she was trapped in there.  My wife didn't notice her when she threw the quilt back on the bed, and at that point she was MIA.  She was in there for a good 12 hours before I found her.

Moral of the story:  When delivery or service people are at the house, the weasel goes in her cage for the duration.  They are just too precious and helpless if they escape during all the activity.

Cheers, Drew K

Note - in the future, please preface these types of email with "Don't Worry - it has a happy ending!"

In Conclusion

The Revival concluded with the knowledge that our path towards the EIR is in good shape. We are going to have the www.legalizeferrets.org web site rewritten to reflect our goals, change in strategy and to continue to get people involved. The highlight of the web will be Geo's presentation so everyone will know where we are.

The "Ferrets Are More Fun" artwork is also coming along, I hope to have samples shortly.

Money is always a concern, but in these tough times that's pretty normal. If you haven't joined the 3000 Club or donated lately, please do so. We aren't going to go into a major fundraising drive just yet for the EIR. But we are getting off the ground - I hope!

Thank you,

Pat Wright
CLIFFNotes Editor
CLIFFNotes@legalizeferrets.org
(619) 303-0645

Lance M.
Founder, OCFerrets /
President, Ferrets Anonymous
Website: http://www.ocferrets.org/
OCF Email: info@ocferrets.org
(949) 303-8481