TO:  Everybody
 FROM:Colleen Wei
 RE:  Hello
 
      This is my first time on the ferret list.  Dr. Bruce is my husband...who,
though he knows a lot about and loves animals, thinks at times I've gone
off my rocker with the indulgences I allow our masked cuties.  SO I'm very
glad to read that I'm not the only one who treats these furry tots with a
LOT OF TLC.
     Ours have their own bedroom. (In fact they have the biggest one after the
master bedroom.) Knowing they love to sleep behind furniture, and hoping
to attract them back to their own room to sleep, we put a small couch in
there, diagonally across one of the corners  so as to create a triangular
sleep space behind it.  We put lots of towels and those quilted "pita pillows"
back there. And it worked! They'll wake up, go running around the house
until they get tired and then home-in behind that couch in their own room
to go back to bed.  (It worked 100% of the time when we first moved in
and the only familiar things were in their bedroom; now that the whole
house is familiar they occasionally fall asleep in other favorite nooks, but I
just wait until they've fallen asleep and then gently move them back to their
own bed.) Also, since they usually use the litter shortly after awakening,
having them sleep in their own room makes it possible not to have a litter
in every corner of every level of the house.
   I love to let them have free run of the house and not to have to box them
up in a cage to sleep at night. But to keep them safe when no one is
home, and to not have an enquiring nose in the face or a come-play-with-
me nip at the toes at 2AM and 5AM (their favorite hours, it seems) or an
ongoing game of let's-go-toss-things-off-tables-in-the-middle-of-the-night-
until-those-sleepyheads-wake-up... I attached two short vertical strips of
wood to either side of their door jamb to create a vertical gulley through
which I slide a 24"wide by 24"high (although one could make the
dimensions whatever you want)  clear (so they can see through it) sheet of
hard plastic (with decals so they don't run into it) across their doorway
when I need to keep them in their room.  And they still have lots of space
to stretch, play and roam whenever they have to be confined.
   Well I've used up enough space. Next time I'll tell you about Oscar's water
retrieving game. Although I'm really not sure who's got who trained...him or
me.
 
Colleen Wei
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 TO:  Chris Lewis
 FROM: Colleen Wei
 RE: Mocha
Dear Chris,
 
I am so sorry you are going through the heartache of losing Mocha. I know
only too well how this feels. Perhaps it helps for you to know there are so
many of us out here who completely understand and empathize with the
pain you are feeling right now.
 
I know that very few words helped me when I was, without exaggeration,
devastated, last December, losing my MacGregor.  Worse, it was
unexpected. He was only about 4+. He died of kidney failure.
He had done some special cute things that only he seemed to know to do -
like grabbing my finger - very gently - and then taking me into some
cherished hiding spot such as his little cloth tent or into the corner of a
closet.  He didn't seem to care that I couldn't fit past all those things
blocking that corner or the fact that his tent was only about 8" high.  He
also had a unique little hitch in his hind legs when he trotted around.  And I
think I'll not find this again.  Made me wonder why I even let myself get so
close to a little life that inevitably will do things I'll miss and inevitably
go before I do.
   But then I read something from the founder/operator of a dog and cat
rescue operation/shelter in the Pacific Northwest. And it helped me.
 
   He said something like:  to get close to them, and over and over again to
suffer from their loss is voluntarily choosing a painful way of life; yet just
to
know we brought joy, comfort and love into their lives, and for some of
them, they might not otherwise have known such, makes it worth it.
 
   Hope you are finding comfort in remembering Mocha as she was smiling.
And to know that you were the one who gave her that.
 
Colleen Wei
 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 TO:  Mark D. Chavez
 FROM:Colleen Wei
 RE:  Hide-n-seek with Spud
 
How did you teach Spud to play Hide-N-Seek?  i.e. to come seek you or for
that matter to wait in one place while you hide...Mine would either follow
me or simply go about their own business if I'm not in sight.
 
Colleen Wei
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[Posted in FML issue 0626]