As with so many things in life, it seems, it was all my son's fault.

Chris was probably 13 or 14 when he decided that he wanted a ferret.

No, he NEEDED a ferret, and was going to have one.

I said NO. They're too much work, but he persisted.

He bought a copy of Ferrets for Dummies and read it cover to cover,
pointing out things to us as he went.

He saved all of his money from odd jobs, money he got for Christmas or
birthdays, etc. Never spent any of it, until he had enough money to buy
a ferret, cage, and all the stuff.

Well, now I was backed into a corner.

He'd been saving for the better part of a year by that point, taking
on all the extra jobs he could find. In short, being exactly the
responsible kid that I wanted him to be.

I really didn't want to shut that down, and he was being responsible
after all, so I relented, and off to the pet store we went.

We came home with a cage, with its little triangle litterbox, and a
little chocolate male ferret.

The little guy won my heart almost immediately. He had such huge
spirit. He was a little kit, not more than 9 - 10 weeks, I'd guess.

The first time he met our big Siamese cat, he took one look at the cat
who was many times his weight, ran across the room, jumped on the cat
and rode it around the room!

We named him Blur because that's what all the pictures looked like.

Eventually, Blur slipped out the door (we let him and his new buddy
have free-range of the house at that time), and unfortunately didn't
survive the experience.

Chris lost interest in ferrets at that point, but by then I was quite
hooked. We decided that his cage-mate needed a new partner, and found
a ferret shelter to look for a buddy, and the rest is, as they say,
history.

Kevin Farlee
President, Washington Ferret Rescue & Shelter

[Posted in FML 8174]