This incident shouldn't be funny - it wasn't for the mouse - but in
retrospect it is. For those who have tender hearts about mice (I like
mice - but not in my house) read the following with compassion - for
me and the mouse.

Many years (20 +) ago when my husband was alive, we had four ferrets.
One female and three boys. So long ago cannot remember which group,
think the late 70's, and when I looked through my list of ferret names
I still couldn't remember. So the names are lost to history. Origins
of the ferrets - rescues from public, university lab and vets here in
southern California.

One weekend I was getting something to eat in the kitchen, and saw a
small wild mouse down in the family room - which opens directly to the
garage - the door was sometimes open during the day when the ferrets
were locked up. I groaned, and then saw one boy ferret running across
towards it. I swore, since I knew what might happen. Before I could do
anything another two boys appeared out of nowhere along with the small
female.

It then looked like one of those cartoons - four inept ferrets sliding
across the tiled floor in a chase for the mouse which ran for its life
under the TV and behind obstacles. I went down in an attempt to catch
the mouse and put it outside but then after racing behind the bookcase,
the mouse was caught by the female ferret who seemed a little more
skilled than the bumbling males.

She then raced off with the mouse (immediately dead - hanging limply,
its skull in her teeth) dangling from her mouth. She was now chased
in circles around the room by the boys who skidded round corners on
the tiled floor in attempts to retrieve the mouse - obviously a prize
beyond compare. Looked like one of those silent movie chases. Then, a
male managed to grab her mouse away from her and ran off and was now
chased by the remaining boys and the ticked off small female. I yelled
at my husband "they stole her mouse".

The proud lead ferret now broke from the pack and ran up the stairs
into the kitchen and past me up the stairs to - oh god - our bedroom.
My late husband who had been callously laughing (he was rooting for
the ferrets) suddenly became serious - "Find them" he hollered "and get
that damn mouse out of here". I ran up in chase. However when I entered
the bedroom all four ferrets - mouseless - stared at me as though I had
been imagining things. Mouse, what mouse? The four then came back down
to the kitchen for a drink and some kibbles - then went back into the
cage which was in the family room. Like all ferrets they fell into a
deep sleep intertwined - legs and noses twitching occasionally as they
dreamed about mousies.

I spent hours that day looking for that mouse to no avail. Groaning
at the thought of ants, bugs, maggots emerging from somewhere in the
bedroom, I gave up. My husband was irritated and kept asking where it
was. It will smell, he kept saying. There'll be maggots. I also noticed
that now they were "your" ferrets when he spoke of them. When they were
behaving they were "his" or "ours". The ferrets kept silent and slept
on peacefully.

The next morning I dressed in our bedroom and went to put on my shoes.
Arrggh!!! I shrieked. My right foot encountered something soft and
squishy. The mouse!!!! They had stashed the mouse in the toe of my
sneakers! "Look I found it" I exclaimed dangling it by the tail with
triumph in front of my hubby. "Yuck!!" he responded "get that damned
thing out of here". It was placed outside in the canyon, and I sighed.

As a wildlife rehabilitator I can humanely euthanize wildlife that
are injured and cannot be released, but do not like to see healthy
animals killed - except when they are euthanized humanely for research
purposes. I became a vegetarian when I read about conditions in which
chickens and cattle were raised, but do not get upset when others
eat meat. Humans can choose. However, until I see controlled studies
proving that a control group of ferrets reared on raw food lives
significantly longer than a test group on kibbles, I'll be feeding
kibble. I certainly do not like seeing prey killed in front of my eyes
by predators - the diners in this case care nothing about killing
humanely - and the prey sometimes suffers. Finally, there is still
more of a risk of salmonella infection from uncooked meat - no matter
how careful the preparation - than there is in processed dry food.

[ME]

[Posted in FML 6896]