Hi, all...
It's me again, Jodi, she-who-is-clueless.  The most pressing problem I've been
having with Leopold is that he BITES.  Hard.  Half the people I talk to say,
"Get used to it, they bite."  It seems that ferret proponents and pet-store
ferret books leave out the fact that many normal ferrets like to bite.  Leopold
nips, which I don't mind, and even figure that it's fine and normal for him to
do this.  He also, however, can latch on like...well, like a weasel, I guess;
he grabs onto a chunk of flesh and absolutely refuses to let go, to the point
of shaking his head back and forth in "kill" mode.  When he does this, I holler
"OWOWOW (not regulation, but i can't help it) NO! NO!" and thump him in the
side as if I were flicking a marble.  This usually makes him let go and start
licking the parts that he was just trying to kill.  (He has drawn blood a few
times, yesterday on the bridge of a sleeping friend's nose...ouch!)  I would of
course prefer him to just not do this to begin with.  The other day I was at
the mirror and he came galloping up behind me, flung himself into the air, and
latched onto the tendon at the back of my knee...and hung there.  Evil, evil.
Is this typical???  Can I train him out of this?  Or is he just a little
meanie?  By the way, even when he's running around biting, I speak to him
kindly; I don't want to be harsh with him and make him think that I deserve to
be bitten.
He also stole my cigarettes...a whole carton...lost.  I can't find them
anywhere.  That's annoying in itself, but I need to find them to keep him from
deciding to eat them; they are even more poisonous ingested than when they are
being smoked.  Hmm, what else...do ferrets get caffeinated?  My friends tend to
forget my warnings not to bring drinks into the room and leave them anywhere
other than on a shelf; they always put them on the desk, and Leopold and I race
for it, and he always manages to win and knock the drink over.  I growl and go
for the mop, while he crawls around in the coke and drinks it.  Then, for the
next few hours, he's even more of a spazz...I really think that the sugar and
caffeine affects him in the same way it affects humans.  Sigh...
No matter how many trials he puts me through, though, he can make up for it in
a split second by running up the chair, up my chest, and giving me a quick
"hello" lick on my lips, then bounding away again.
He's only about nine weeks old; will he maybe calm down some when he gets
full-grown?
Thanks,
Jodi and Leopold
 
  -------------------------------------
 
It's fun reading about people carrying ferrets in their shirts. Wednesdsay used
to sleep in the sleeve of my flannel jacket when she was a kit and could
squeeze in next to my arm... now she's too big but she still likes to ride in
the top of my overalls, next to my chest. Sometimes she slips down around my
belly to snooze and then I look pregnant. Overalls are fun for her b/c she can
ride with her head poked out and take in all the sights. I have a cute photo of
us coming home from the pet shop with Wednesday riding in a big paper grocery
bag atop the items we bought, happily looking around at the world.
 
cya,
Geri
 
[Posted in FML issue 0600]