Pet ferret in Missouri chews off seven of sleeping infant's fingers after crawling onto baby seat

Cries from colic and cries from long, drawnout pain are different cries.

During my oldest daughter's first night on Earth, the nurses let her sleep in my wife's hospital room. In the middle of the night, the nurses could hear my daughter's blood curdling screams from across the hospital wing. They kept checking to make sure that we were not beating her to death.

We had her checked by the doctor repeatedly when she was an infant. The doctor could find nothing wrong and assured us that she just had very healthy lungs and a very low tolerance for any annoyance. Whenever she wanted anything (food, sleep, a clean diaper, to be held, etc.) and did not get it immediately out came the blood curdling screams. She is now a teenager and has many of the same characteristics.

My youngest daughter was the opposite. She rarely cried and slept through just about anything. She is now also a teenager and getting her to wake up for school in the morning is a challenge.

I am not saying that the parents in the article are innocent. If they tested positive for drugs or alcohol or if there is any evidence that they left the baby unattended then they should be prosecuted for child abuse. I also think they were grievously stupid to allow a ferret to roam through their house with an infant.

I am just saying that it is POSSIBLE that the parents were in a sleep deprived state from a screaming baby and that by the time Mom woke up enough to realize that the baby was injured it was too late.

Ferrets are domesticated weasels. They make great pets but not around babies and small children. When it comes to domesticated carnivores, supervise playtime and make sure neither pet nor the child are too rough.

They can be best friends but parents have to set boundaries.

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