(This is Susie Lee for all of us at The Ferret And Dove Sanctuary, Inc.
The evening before this took place, Valerie Wahoski drove with one of us
to help retrieve a new rescued ferret from a dog-and-cat shelter in a
nearby county.  Val named him Andy. and being an albino, his name became
Andy Allwhite Ferret.  Since Val had to return to the Navy Base and is
not allowed to keep him, there, I turned in this report of the "newbies'"
first day, here.  This may be of some mild interest to those who are of
the misunderstanding that ferrets in shelters and rescues languish in
their cages all day, which simply isn't true.)
 
This is Susie for both of us reporting on how is the new albino ferret,
Andy Allwhite Ferret.
 
This morning, after all the other 2nd playroom regulars were let out (the
one Wes calls "his"), Andy Allwhite Ferret was set down to check and
be checked-over by all and sundry.  They sniffed, he sniffed back, they
circled and he ran, at first, and then he turned and hopped onto Chloe
DEWLovey and Clydesdale Silver (awaaayyyy!) and some serious and
sustained playing ensued, mostly between these three with occasional
play-jump forays by Fort Walton Charlie, Farrah LeFert, Zoey JoyfulGirl,
Sandy LeQuick and Little Miss Muffin.  Several of the less-young ferrets
were engaged in play by the new guy but declined to return
ferret-flipping in kind.  Among these last, whom Andy Allwhite felt were
fuddy-duddys anyhow, were Bandit Waggy-Tail, Jazzmine Miss-Boss, Jasper
Cinnamon, and Willow ButterCreamCoat, who ran off to catch a few extra
winks behind the large-pot storage in the kitchen.  Clydesdale SIlver
began climbing the brick room-divider at one, no, make that three,
(separate) points trying to find his way into the tetra fishtank and
lead our squeaky-clean new ferret-recruit into less-than-savory ways.
Well, maybe not, really, if you have the right seasoning and you think
tetras taste good, but anyway; this action was discouraged by removing
Clyde from the play-area and just holding him, in plain sight of the
new recruit where he could be seen wanting to get back down to renew
mischief-making but not being allowed to.  Every single other youngster-
ferret saw this (Big Mama sitting and calmly but with gentle Firmness
holding a Clydesdale Silver Ferret who very plainly would rather be loose
and playing with the gang) and ever single one scooted off to the living
room to play with the bunches of toys and tubes all set out, there...
except for Izod DEW Litely, who had his toy-stashing-routine callously
interrupted by, of all things, a closed door!, whence he spent nearly
ten full minutes banging on the door to be opened so he could stash the
stuffed toys under the bed, but no joy, there, so he actually lined up
seven of the stuffed toys in a row from the door down the little hallway
and plopped down at the end of his own line to see if ANYone were ever
going to open that door.  Andy Allwhite gave the whole operation a
sniffing-over and decided to jump Izod, who promptly forgot all about
his toy-running operation and joined into the renewed serious playing.
Clydesdale Silver stopped squirming (being still for 30 whole seconds is
silent-talk for "I'll be good"when doing a"time-out") and was let back
down to join in some real fun and forget about fishing, ...for now.
When everyone was eventually returned to their cleaned and re-stocked
quarters, Andy Allwhite slurped the ferretvite off his food, climbed into
his big, soft hammie, yawned a huge, jaw-cracking yawn and conked.  I can
swear truthfully he really, really looked to be smiling in his sleep!
 
And That's the Story!
[Posted in FML issue 4564]