Hi to all.  Boy, I am new to the list, but it never ceases to amaze me
the love that all of the fml'ers have for their fuzzies.
 
I at one time, never would have thought to get a ferret - but at Christmas
time last year, we had a small tragedy.  We had a house fire, and had to
temporarily move from our house.  At that time, we had the following
animals: two cats, and one rat (yes, I said rat) - we were forced to find
temporary housing for them for a few days until we could move into our
home again.  We had a wonderful neighbor who has a son, who had rats that
just recently died, who said she would watch our rat for us.  I should
have enquired as to why their rats died - but I didn't.  We found out (too
late) - that she had a small carbon minoxide leak, and that while our rat
died, it may have spared her family from a worse fate.  My youngest son,
however, would not look at that as a consolation - so I decided to try and
"replace" his rat, with another one from Petco.  Well, I went to our local
Petco, with the full intention of purchasing a rat replacement.  On my
way back to the cages, I bumped into a display and my keys fell out of my
pocket.  As I bent over to retrieve them, someone grabbed my hair and gave
it a yank.  I looked up into the brown little pudding eyes of our first
ferret.  As I sat there puzzling, how to get her furry fingers untangled
from my long hair, it dawned on me......I had to get this ferret....what
choice did I have?  She had me by the hair!!!
 
Enter: Helena - a very small petite, but energy filled cinammon female....
In hopes of keeping this long story short, we brought her home.  Decided
that she looked waaaaay too lonely, and set out - back to Petco for
another friend for her (this was before I knew there were ferret shelters
folks...).  I went in and looked around for the "best" suit for her - and
discovered a very small sable boy - who was really on the border of being
too young to sell, and was the tiniest one in the lot (there were only 3)
but he looked so "frail" that we had to get him......enter Romulus....my 7
month old 3.5 POUND (yeah, small and frail my butt!) young man.  They are
now the best of buddies and own us thoroughly.
 
Recently, we had a long trip from New Mexico to Michigan that we were
driving.
 
Enter problem one: who will care for these guys like we do?  They have
free reign of the house (except at nightime) - and were NOT going to be
very tolerant of being "caged" for 8 days, with no relief.
 
Enter solution: Bring em with us!  So off we went, two ferts, 3 children
and two thoroughly insane adults.  We WERE smart enough to realize that
this large crew would require TWO cars, and not one.  I don't know if
anyone else has ever traveled across the country with ferts before, but
one thing I can tell you is our two did FAMOUSLY!!!  We made numerous
stops for "potty" and "walk the ferts" purposes.  At every rest area we
stopped at, Helena and Romulous were a hit.  Talk about an attention
getter.......people were dumping their dogs in their cars, so they could
run to "meet" these furry little creatures.  I personally, must have
"trained" at least 25 people on the fun of ferts!  We had a wonderful
time doing this, and would not hesitate to do it again.  We were welcome
at hotels with them, without too much flack (we fibbed and said they
NEVER leave their cages - yeah right!!!)  Thankfully, they did no
permanent damage to any of the rooms we were in!  Taking them with us was
a real chore, but it was made worth it, by knowing that WE were caring for
them, and that the trip was not stressing them.
 
So - to any of you other brave, adventerous (Uh, daring?  *grins*) people,
if you must travel with ferts, it is not as traumatic as one might think!
I would NOT however, recommend this for folks with elderly ferts.  I think
ours did so great, because they are both still so young (8 and 9 months
old), and because we made many frequent (to my childrens dismay) stops,
which I think helped too.  Just wanted to share our story with other
fuzzie lovers out there Dooks to all!
 
Kim and her "not so tiny" fuzz butts.
 
Kimberly Gorman
Regional Translations Engineer
Cricket Communications
A Leap Company
Albuquerque NM 87107
Office: 505-872-7773
Fax:   505-872-7790
Cell:  505-228-4130
Cricket cell: 489-2470
[Posted in FML issue 3845]