965. ckeeling, Santa Clara, CA 964. rachelle99ak, Springfield, OR 963. Zora & Teenie, Los Angeles, CA 962. David, Redding, CA 961. jjspets@hotmail.com, GULFPORT, CA
960. Eibhilin, Redding, CA 959. Sandy and the Dook City Gang, Los Lunas, NM 958. Roger and Barb, Santa Cruz, CA 957. Littlebear42, Los Angeles, CA 956. SHAUNY, SUNNYVALE, CA
Up five members this week! Love to hit 1000 real soon!
Readers' Column
Above - Joe Ferret takes a nap. He'll need his rest. If neither Jerry Brown nor Meg Whitman acknowledge our issue - he'll be a write in candidate for Governor! Just passed the route 40 agricultural checkpoint between AZ and CA. They are checking vehicles, so any prospective parents beware.
Chris M.
My Chewy was a Marshall ferret and I have his brother, same mom and dad. He is very active and healthy thank God.
What I am getting from you about the lumps on Chewy is that he died from something that you may be baffled about also. The vet said that it could have just been a rare thing that Chewy got. I don't want to get all paranoid that all ferrets are going to get sick easily including the horrible adrenal gland disease also. How common is that? AGD?
Attaching a couple pics that will hopefully make it on Cliff Notes sometime. Skippy gets to do almost anything he wants to do. He was in the cushions of my couch upside down sticking his head out.
Julie
Marshall Pet Responds:
I had forward this to our vet to review. Of course without seeing any notes from the vet that treated this ferret and with a vague description we don’t have very much to go by. We understand that everyone needs some sort of closure when there is a loss.
The vet truly believes that the symptoms described are very rare in all animals. So many questions that should have been asked (and possibly were)- that would have been helpful are:
What was the ferret’s diet?
Exposure to other animals?
Any previous illness- virus - parasites?
Previous health or prior visits?
How was the ferret housed/and or its environment?
In the picture it looks like the lymph nodes have swollen and that was why the pet was dragging his body.
If your pet has a fever or is in pain in any way this is a common way for them to try to be mobile.
If biopsies were declined it would be impossible to clearly understand why this happened. It doesn't state if any tests had been done.
If a necropsy had been done it may have given you some closure of what may have lead up to this condition.
Although that is a personal choice for any pet owner, we do understand why some pet owners opt not to do this procedure.
We are completely heartbroken for this pet owner we know that they tried so desperately to keep this little pet healthy.
The loss of any pet is devastating and heart breaking.
So sorry we can't give you more answers that I am sure you are desperately looking for.
Denise F.
Castro Valley Companion Animal Hospital - Mention CLIFFNotes and get $ 15.00 off your next visit, Join the "3000 Club and get $ 30.00 off.
We love our advertisers! Contact us to get your ad here.
Legalize Ferrets Revival Reminder
September 25th, 2010 in Concord, CA.
The price for early bird registration is $22. Our thanks to Stephen S. from Oceanside for sponsoring the video of Dr Gandolfi's talk.
Reaching for the Press, Candidates and Editorial Boards
Our OpEd piece was distributed on Wednesday. We spent $99 to send it our using Send2Press (which is very ferret friendly - they even ordered ferret t-shirts from us once)
We carefully and individually emailed the editorial boards we have collected over the past few months:
Alameda Times-Star Antelope Valley Press Appeal-Democrat BBC Chico Enterprise-Record Fresno Bee Humboldt Beacon Long Beach Telegram Los Angeles Times Los Banos Enterprise
Merced Sun-Star National Public Radio North County Times Orange County Registrar Press Democrat Riverside Press Enterprise Sacramento Bee Sacramento News and Review San Diego Union Tribune San Francisco Chronicle
San Jose Mercury News Santa Cruz Sentinel Sierra Star The Daily Californian The Modesto Bee Times Standard Ventura County Star Vida en la Valle
Can you think of anyone we missed? - please send their contact information in ASAP!
We sent out an email to the 88 people who get this email that we know are involved with the media. Four opened it, and one unsubscribed. - So we're not doing all that great in media relations. Any media relations wizards out there want to lend a hand?
I did receive one phone call from the weekly alternative newspaper, the Sacramento News and Review. They said it was time for a follow up story. This story appeared in 2005 - but I don't remember seeing it.
In that article is a key paragraph which explains what we are up against:
Inside the Capitol, the effort to [legalize] domesticated ferrets has become a recurring joke. It’s discussed in the same chuckle-laden conversations as bills to allow condoms in prisons, prevent ice-cream trucks from double-parking and ban X-rated videos from in-car DVD players.
It’s considered by many to be trivial and doomed to fail.
Fail?! No - It's past time to legalize ferrets in California.
We weren't able to get our OpEd piece published - that I know of so far, but it isn't that difficult to get a letter to the editor published. The smaller the newspaper the easier it is, and it is read by thousands.
To the left is a sample letter. Please copy and make it your own.
Then go to your newspaper's website, look for the letters to the editor tab, follow their simple directions and send it off!
Sample Letter to the Editor Dear Editor The effort to legalize domestic ferrets has been going on for decades! A study soon to be released by Sacramento State University done on behalf of www.legalizeferrets.org shows conclusively that the domestic ferret has not damaged the environment or agriculture. There is minimal concern over public health issues. No doubt that ferrets are much safer than dogs and cats. We know that Californians buy 27% of the nation’s ferret supplies and we are the #1 state in ownership of pet ferrets. Our state is looking a little ridiculous to continue this ban. It’s past time to overcome California’s over-regulation and allow legal ferret ownership in our state – just as they are in the other 48 continental United States. Pat Wright La Mesa, CA
Candidate Surveys Almost Ready to Go We are just about ready to send out our 2010 candidate survey to Jerry Brown, Meg Whitman and all the candidates for state assembly and state senate. To the left is the cover. There will also be a cover letter and the following documents:
We're probably going to have about 350 packages to send out. The goal is to find a legislative sponsor next year as well as build awareness of the issue in the state legislature.
Each package is going to cost about $2.50 - so now is a good time to pass the hat and ask people to drop in five bucks or so. We don't want to break the bank. (although I know, that for a lot of us - the bank is already broken, I'm in that boat!)
Roc, $24.95 A benefit for California Ferret Legalization!
Private investigator Harper Blaine is a "Greywalker," someone who lives in the realm between life and death. In this, her fifth adventure, she's back on the trail of the man – alive or dead – who killed her for two minutes, making her a Greywalker. Harper's father is missing, and she's convinced that her attacker knows the truth behind this as well. Harper's constant companion is her ferret, Chaos; Richardson, a ferret owner herself, has pledged all her royalties from this signing to the movement to legalize ferrets as pets in California. For more information about this cause, visit http://www.legalizeferrets.org/.
Please contact [the book store, not legalizeferrets.org] us directly to purchase this title. You may email orders@mystery-bookstore.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or telephone us on our toll–free number, (800) 821-9017.
August 09 2010 12:00 PM and 02:00 PM
LA: Mystery Bookstore Signing, 1036 Broxton Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024-2824 Tel: (310) 209-0415.
Signing and speaking to benefit California Ferret Legalization.
Kat will donate the royalties from every one of her
books sold at the Mystery Bookstore.
Yeah - How Exciting For Us!
Thank you and good luck Kat!
Another Celebrity Ferret Owner Emerges
Holly Madison, one of Hugh Hefner’s girlfriends and starred in the reality show “The Girl’s Next Door” and most recently dated Criss Angel (the showman/magician) She currently lives in Las Vegas and is starring in her own reality TV show. (Thanks Dany for the info.)
I'm not going to link to the Weekly World News article.
If anyone has a way to contact her it would be appreciated. A signed photo would be nice to have to auction off at the September 25th Legalize Ferrets Revival.
Loving Homes needed for Ferrets - call Luise 323-528-3515
Help Needed - Ferrets Anonymous Paw Print(ing)
You may be one of the subscribers to Ferrets Anonymous' bi-monthly publication, The Paw Print. If you are, you may have noticed that the May/June issue didn't show up. This isn't because the newsletter wasn't completed. Its due to the fact that the President of FA hasn't been able to get the newsletter printed due to an insane schedule, recovery from surgery this past February (I'm still not anywhere near 100%), and little time to do anything but work, do rescue and repeat the process. If you are willing to help with getting the newsletter printed and mailed, we need your help desperately! We're not asking for anyone to pay out of pocket, but we do need someone to take care of printing and mailing the newsletters out on time. The newsletter will be sent to the printer on CD in Publisher format. Please email FAPres@ferretsanonymous.org or for more information!
Thank you!
Lance M.
In Conclusion
I do have a fear that news reports of a ferret attack are planned. All our opposition has to do is accuse a ferret of biting someone and the harm to legalization efforts would be severe.
But we haven't received a call about a biting ferret - for years! It used to be a major behavioral challenge - "my ferret is biting, how do I stop it?" Is Marshall Ferrets producing more docile ferrets? (though Bailey does like to take a nip on my elbow or the dog's nose).
There was another 2 year old todler killed by a dog this week. I feel terrible about it, the dog's photo is in the paper. I don't think the dog's owners understood what they were dealing with. A lot of ferret owners are the same way - though the ferret always pays the price.
Other than a little paranoia - I'm feeling pretty good about the prospects of ferret legalization.
Please note, the new version of www.legalizeferrets.org is hopefully going to be published later tonight. We may have a few glitches.
