About a month ago, I wrote asking for advice when one of my fuzzbutts,
Scratchy, decided to go AWOL.  Sadly, he never found his way home despite
my efforts.  At first I thought the worst, since my home backs up to
woods full of other critters, it is winter and snowy up here in New York
and Scratchy lacks all survival skills except cuteness and the ability to
sneak into ANYTHING.  However, my 5-year old daughter, Sophie, explained
that Scratchy is fine and just decided to go on vacation.  She described,
repeatedly and in excruciating detail, Scratchy taking a little stick
and tying to it one of the 1000's of socks he has stolen, throwing in a
cheweasal, some food and one of his toys, and taking off for the airport
to smuggle onto a southbound plane!  We also have described the shrieks
of surprise from the lady who sat next to him, and how Scratchy calmly
explained that he is NOT a rat or any other type of rodent, thank you,
and that there is no cause for alarm.  Needless to say, this version of
events is much more palatable to all concerned!
 
Thank you very much to all of you who offered advice and support when I
reached out for help with finding Scratchy, as well as dealing with his
depressed cagemate, Itchy!  After about 3 weeks, I decided to go to the
Yonkers ferret shelter and pick out a new pal for Itchy.  Dino (short for
Dionysus, due to his champagne fur and burgundy eyes) is very sweet, but
has been pretty rough on Itchy.  Lots of surprise attacks and attempts to
scruff the poor, depressed Itchy with his teeth!  Needless to say, Itchy
became even more depressed and starting having stomach problems (green,
mucousy poo).  I called my vet, and she suggested that I separate them
for a while until they got used to each other.  So, now I have two big
cages right next to each other, and Itchy is, after a couple of weeks,
back to his old playful self (and as regular as clockwork on Metemucal!).
As noted by the other owner of a depressed ferret that sent in a note
yesterday, Itchy is a little different - more "attached" to my daughter
and I and sometimes a little subdued.  But given all the change in his
little ferret world he is doing great.  Dino is also a happy boy, but he
must learn that there is only one TOP FERRET in this house - and my
fuzzy-butt could squash him (although I am certain it will not come to
that ;-).
 
Thanks again to all who offered advice - and to JoAnn the Shelter-mom,
who does great work and is a wonderful person for caring for homeless
fuzzies!
 
Best, ASG
 
Andrew Gold
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[Posted in FML issue 5162]