Before my first ferret came to live with me, I saw a ferret in a
dream--only, I didn't know what kind of animal it was. I thought it was
a woodchuck. In the dream, it was in my Memphis apartment, trying to
climb up on my green plaid couch. All of a sudden, it stuck its neck
out really fast, like a snake, which startled me and woke me up. I
wondered, "Why would a funny woodchuck be climbing up my couch?"

Soon after that, I was unpacking a shipment of new books delivered to
the library and recognized my animal--it was on the cover of a book
about ferrets. "Ah, so that was a ferret!" I thought. "But still--why
would a ferret be climbing up my couch?"

In the following few months, I ran into ferrets a couple of times--once
at the Lichterman Nature Center (a program on predators where they let
us pet a ferret and explained that it was not a wild animal, but an
abandoned pet). Once at the Society for Creative Anachronism Pennsic
get-together in Pennsylvania. I started reading up on them and became
intrigued. . .and that was no secret, at the library where I worked, a
branch where everybody knew everybody and everybody's "business."

One day, my co-worker told me that she found a ferret -- or rather,
the ferret found her -- when she was in the drive-thru at Burger King.
She looked out the window, saw her and told her son, "That's not a
squirrel!" and went over to check it out. The lost little ferret ran
right up to her and "begged" her for rescue, so of course she took her
home and put her on their back porch. But with 5 kids, dogs, and cats,
Ann figured that a) she really couldn't take on a ferret and b) she
thought that I might want to have a new little friend.

She called me and I met her at the library and picked up the cardboard
kitty carrier with the ferret inside. Delighted and a little anxious
(as any new adoptive "parent" would be!) I put her in the car and asked
her, "What is your name?" I turned on the radio and they were playing a
song about "Shasta," and I said, "Are you 'Shasta?'" and she "agreed"
to that--although her "real" name was actually some kind of musical
note that couldn't be written in English, as she "told" me later.

I kept looking and looking for notices of lost sable female ferrets,
even once, trying to be ethical but hoping for the best, driving her
some distance to a woman who took one look and said, "Oh, that's not my
ferret--but she's lovely! You should keep her!" And so--I did, for by
that time I had fallen in love. And "the rest is history," as the
saying goes!

Kate (currently-owned by "Michaela," a.k.a "Mickey," who is a
sweet-and-spunky tiny champagne-colored ferret princess missing her
late brother "George," a.k.a. "Zorro," who was a dark-and-dashing
handsome sable ferret prince)

"May all your ferret tales end 'happily ever after.'"

[Posted in FML 8173]