I have enjoyed reading the stories of ferrets that have spoken to and
picked their humans from all of the other people they have come in
contact with.

I hesitated about writing, since I don't write with the eloquence of
Alexandra or the wit of Wolfy.:) But then I thought that I never get
tired of telling the stories of two very special ferrets that did
"speak" to me and chose me as the recipient of their love and
affection.

We got our first ferret back in 1986, and while "Bandit" (not very
original, i know) was a great little girl, she started a line of just
ordinary ferrets over the years. They all had their own personalities
and we loved them all, but they all did their own thing, and as long as
they got fed and had something to play with, they were happy...don't
bother us/we won't bother you. :)

Time warp up to the new century, and a ferret came into our lives that
would change me forever. We were not a legal shelter back then, just
helping someone else rescue ferrets. We had met her in a pet store
where she had a table set up and we struck up a friendship, over our
mutual love of ferrets.

One day she got a couple of ferrets in that the local SPCA couldn't
deal with. They couldn't get them to eat anything, and admitted that
they didn't know much about ferrets. She agreed to pick them up, and
later brought them over to our house to see if we would help with one
of them. Two starving ferrets, along with all of the others she had to
deal with was just too much and she wanted to be sure that they each
got the individual attention that they would need to survive.

She kept Lucy and we agreed to take Linus. Linus was a listless guy
that had a look that said he was old and tired. We tried everything we
had in the house, from kitten chow to ferret food and even went to our
local Petco where they let us "try" bags of food in the store. Still he
ate nothing, and we were starting to get worried. We had had him for
about 1 week, and still we hadn't seen him eat anything, and other
than being "fed" his soup, he wanted nothing to do with anything.

Then one day, after I had filled our cats food bowl and was taking the
empty bag out to the kitchen to throw away, a few pieces of food fell
on the floor. Not thinking much about it, I continued to the trash.
(Our dog or other ferrets are usually glad to do their part by picking
up anything that drops onto the floor).

I heard someone munching and crunching and turned around to see who it
was. I was surprised to see Linus laying on the floor eating the bits
that had fallen. He had a look on his face like he had just found a
pile of Ambrosia. He finished the bits of food, and then walked over
to my feet and laid his head on my foot.

From that day forward, Linus and I were practically inseparable. He
liked my wife too, and was always willing to be held and loved by
anyone, but he would always want down when I came around, and he would
come over to me asking to be picked up. He would always fall fast
asleep in my arms. When I was working on the computer, Linus would come
into the room, paw at my legs until I picked him up. He would walk
around the computer desk, check things out, then curl up on my lap
while i worked or played. When I would come home from work, his was the
first beautiful face I saw when I came thru the door. He was like a dog
that waited for his master to return. When we went to ferret events,
since he was by now our mascot, he always went with us. He would not
ride in a carrier, it seemed to stress him out too much. He instead,
spent most of the time curled up on my lap while I drove. Once in a
while he would let "mom" hold him, but he always came back to me.

When he got sick with what turned out to be MegaE, I was scared to
death. The worst day of my pitiful live was fast approaching and I
didn't know how I was going to live without my boy. He meant everything
to me, and was the only thing that kept me going at times. The night I
held him in my arms for the last time, when Dr. K gave him his mercy
shot, a part of me died as well. The only creature, human or otherwise,
that I never had to wonder if they really loved me, was gone. I swore
that I would never let myself get that close to another ferret or
anything else ever again.

And then came Rustle...

Jim Kennedy, Director
Ferret Rescue of Maine
A State licensed, 501c3 Non-profit shelter.
Donate to shelter ferrets by clicking
igive.com/from

[Posted in FML 6671]