As some of you may know, I have been keeping you informed on Tam and her
struggle for life.  Tam was born very, very small.  Her brother so large
that mommy birthed him too young and he passed away.  Tam's mother lost
her milk when Tam was 4 almost 5 days old and so I had to hand raise
baby Tam.
 
Well after being told by other breeders that they would not waste their
time because she was so small and nothing special.  So those people who
know who they are, Miss Tam is a happy NORMAL Sized bouncing baby girl.
Tam will officially be 6 months old on February 5th.  Had a full
examination this morning by my vet who said she is absolutely healthy.
In fact, she likes to play with people, she bares her teeth and runs
away.  She scared my vet at first but when he saw that she was playing he
laughed and said she was a nut but that is what he loves about ferrets.
It's funny, she likes to intimidate but she doesn't bite at least not
intentionally.  I think she got that from one of the dogs, the great dane
growls and runs aways from people.  So perhaps Tam thinks she is a dog.
 
In fact, about a year ago before Tam was born, one of the cages, of which
had an escape artist (unbeknownst to us at the time) and she casually
let everyone out of her cage as being that the doors where the locks that
you push in, she unlatched the top part of a door on the cage below hers.
Well needless to say we had 7 ferrets running throughout the house.  We
found the kitchen's sponge on the couch, the mop pulled out into the
living room.  And the funniest thing of all, all three of our dogs had
run for cover, one upstairs in the hall way and two on the living room
furniture, hoping the ferrets weren't smart enough to climb up.  The
culprit who let them all out was dancing on my dad's chair and being
that the control was on the couch.  She had hit the power button and was
bouncing on the volume control which is what woke us up at such an odd
hour of the morning.  They were having a good time.  They all pretty much
came to us.  Wondering how they got out, we put them back and I waited
down stairs in the living room to see if we had an escape artist.  About
an hour later, here came the escape artist, her other cage mates asleep
and the top lock of the bottom cage undone with everyone asleep inside.
So I scooped her into my arms and put fort knox on her cage.  Well she
pulled on the cage for hours as i slept down stairs for fear that there
might be another way out.
 
Well after this grand escape, we haven't had anything either until Tam,
who is too smart for her own good at times.  Well we got these new Ferret
play pens, the Great Wall by Milestone, its about 24 inches high.  I
decided to test run them with Tam's group which included her mother and
Zenan (belongs to my friend Jill and Zenan is here for breeding).  Well
the playpen in held together by a sturdy velco strap.  So I pulled it as
tight as possible.  Put the litter pan in there along with stuffed toys,
ping pong balls, jingle balls, and her squeaky toys.  It was toy heaven.
Well Tam, being the sneaky, smart, intelligent ferret, saw my grandmother
in the living room and decided it was time to visit grandmom and watch TV
(she's such a couch potato).  Well she flipped over the litter pan, piled
up her stuffed toys and squeaky toys, jumped up, grabbed the velco and
hoisted herself over and down.  Climbed up the couch my grandmother was
sitting on and into her lap where she sat pretty as you please and scared
the daylights out of my grandmother.  The playpen was in the kitchen and
in sight of my grandmother.  I had left the living room to bath Zenan,
not gone for more than 5 minutes.  And apparently my grandmother during
that time, put Tam back in the playpen and within moments she was sitting
in her lap again.  I had come back out and my grandmother told me that
she was getting out, I made sure the strap was tight and flipped her
litter pan back over and cleaned up the spilled litter and then watched
as she flipped it over, piled up the toys and tried to make the grand
escape.  So Tam can only have jingle balls and ping pong balls, no more
stuffed or squeaky toys as she piles them up to make her escape.  She is
very intelligent.
 
So all things with Tam are great.  She is my miracle baby and my brat.
 
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[Posted in FML issue 5129]