My all time favorite is Fidget, also known as Da Fidge, he is a sable
boy, with a horrid background.  You can see his picture at
www.pertfinder.com/shelter/OH48.html .
 
He's my first ferret of my own, and first rescue.  Fidget (Then Taz) and
Tinker were owned by some people who had two children under the age of
two.  Also two ferrets, 3 dogs, 3 cats, and several iguanas.  They had
the board of health and childrens'' services called on them and the words
Roach Motel marked across their front door.  I was informed through a
friend of this.  Childrens' services told them they had to part with their
animals or they would be parting with their children.  I went to get the
ferrets.
 
I found an apartment that was disgusting.  From the moment you walked in
the door, you smelled cat pee, dog crap, and ferret poo.  There was feces
all over the floor.  Laundry spilled out from every doorway, down the
stairs, and was mingled with the filth on the floorThere had been no food
or water for the iguanas.  The animals were emaciated.  Taz and Tinker
were in a cage, where they were not handled properly.  Had not been fed
for who knows how long, they were so scrawny.  Their water bottle was
empty.  The litterbox (a small corner one) was literally buried under the
mound of ferret potty.maggotts were crawling around in it.  I tried to
pick u the ferrets to put in a carrier, but Taz kept trying to bite.  So I
just stuffed this filthy cage in my car, thankfully I had a sheet to cover
the back seat.
 
It was night time by the time we got home.  Taz mauled my thumb when it
slipped inside while I tried to wrestle the cage from the back seat.  it
hurt really bad.  When I got to our apartment, I cleaned up my thumb,
bandaged it, then put on some heavy work gloves.  I got the ferrets out,
Tinker was always gentle.  Taz spazzed, but they both wound up in the
bathtub.  My roomie watched them while I went outside with some bleach to
sanitize their cage.  It was, to say the least, naaaaasssstyyyy.Once it
was cleaned, we filled the bowl with food, filled the water bottle, and
put in a clean hammy.  (My roomie already had a ferret, our little deaf
blaze boy Voodoo) I donned the gloves again, then proceeded to wash the
ferrets.  Tinker was well behaved always.  She was a lovely chocolate
mutt.  Once clean and semidry from towel snorkeling, they were put back
into their cage.
 
Of all their 4 months of life, I don't think they ever had a clean cage
and they seemed confused.  Then they smelled the food and went bonkers.
Taz wouldn't let Tink eat, so we added another bowl.
 
Two days later, Taz was reborn.  He became Fidget.  My Fidget.  Tinker
went to a home with kids, and had free roam of their house.  She slept
with the kids taking turns so each one was loved.  Fidget never bit again.
the third day after being with us, Fidget along with Voodoo went to
daycare with me to teach ferret awareness, and proper pet care.  Fidget is
my soulmate.  He tells me things.  We understand each other.  We speak the
universal language of love, and it is he who started it all.  Every ferret
life I have since saved, is because of Fidget's love.  He showed me that
behind every abused (he had been hit for his biting in his previous home)
and neglected creature is a beautiful, loving soul who needs to be set
free from their prison of fear.  Fidge is the ferret who climbed in my lap
to share my cheetos, stashed my socks under the kitchen hutch, and always
comes when he is called.  Fidge is going to be five years old this
January.  We don't know exactly what date, but we celebrate it on the
15th.  When he dies, which is hopefully in the very far off future (he is
a Marshall ferret), I don't know what I will do.  My heart will break a
thousand times, my life will feel terribly empty.  When I think about it,
which I try to avoid, I feel a terrible sharp pang of loss.  I will need
Sandee to meet him up with Patches, our little 7 week old kit who went to
the bridge all alone.  But anyway, Fidget is now, and always will be, my
favorite ferret in the whole world.
 
Kim Wolf
Mystyx Samoyeds, Ferrets and Rescue
www.geocities.com/mystyx_samoyedsnferrets
www.petfinder.org/shelters/OH48.html
[Posted in FML issue 3573]