Our family has a new member!  We brought home a new kit yesterday.  This
little guy had spent the third month of his life sick as he could be in
the back room of a pet store.  They nursed him back to health - without
vet care, of course.  We saw him when the first brought him out to the
display.  He was starving because he was too weak to crunch up his food,
or to compete with the others for it.  We made sure (we watched) they
gave him some soft food to eat.  He spent the next couple of months in
the display, waiting for someone to give him a home.
 
Well, finally we did.  He's a funny little thing.  He's pigment- deprived
- he's not an albino, but his head is mostly white and his eyes are
reddish.  Not the bright red you get with an true albino, but
red-reflecting in the light.
 
The strangest thing about him is his little body.  I'm wondering if he is
stunted because of his illness, or perhaps because he was a runt.  He has
a normal sized head, normal legs, he's as big around as a normal fert,
but his body is foreshortened.  He's only a half to three- quarters as
long as a normal ferret.  Even though he's now 5-6 months old, he looks
like a very large kit.  He's proportioned like a kit, too.  He has the
big belly instead of the sleek tubular adult shape.
 
We can't tell yet if he is deaf or not.  You know how it is.  The first
few days they are so excited (or scared) about all of the new surroundings
that it's hard to tell whether they can't hear you, or if they are just
ignoring you.
 
The crew can smell him and are dying to meet him.  Patience, boys!  You
can meet him after his first vet trip!  Gotta make sure we don't have ear
mites or anything!
 
He doesn't have a name yet.  We're waiting for him to pick out a good name
for himself.  Maybe The Runt?  As in Ferret Runtgren?
 
BTW, this store is better than most.  They have some knowledgeable and
caring staff.  But the refusal of pet stores, including this one, to pay
for needed vet care just really burns me up.  We had not planned on
another store ferret, but this little guy needs an understanding home.
 
Roger, Digger, Bear, Fox, Sniffles, and The Runt
[Posted in FML issue 3788]