We have yet another new ferret, bringing our current count up to five.
She is a six-month albino named Gretchen.  The young man who owned her had
her legally in his apartment for a while, but the building changed
ownership and the new owners forbade ferrets.  He attempted to keep her in
hiding for a while, but decided that it wasn't fair to her and brought her
into our pet store, where Kirk and I fell in love with her while I was
giving her her nail clipping and bath.  Unfortunately, the people who sold
her to the guy mentioned that she had her first shot, but negelected to
tell him she would need others, so she was completely unvaccinated apart
from her Marshall Farms shot.  So the first thing we did was hussle her
over to Ferrets, Etc and begin her distemper series.  Tia needed her
booster at the same time anyway.  Gretchen is quite well nip trained and
fairly well litter boxed trained, and quite a sweet ferret overall.
[Sidenote:  We certainly have a lot of rescue-type ferrets come into out
store.]
 
Next thing, we build our ferrets their own bedroom last night.  It's a six
foot by seven foot square in our bedroom (they now have more space in our
bedroom than we do) built out of 2x4s and particle board.  It's four feet
high all the way around except over the "gate", which is two feet high
(easy for Kirk to step over, although I need a box on either side so I can
step over without knocking a wall down).  We're planning to add a two foot
half door on hinges and with a latch over the gate part, so when Coffee
gets bored she can't do a flying leap over the door. :)  There is a tarp
on the floor underneath so they can make all the mess they want and won't
ruin the carpet.  We also have their cat tree, their drain pipe tube,
their small cage (we got rid of the big one when we started giving them
run of the bedroom), their carry cage, a litter box, food and water, and
blankets and towels scattered around to snuggle into.  We're planning to
make and add a couple ramps later, so they can get in and out at will when
we want them too; although for now, we're happy leaving then in there --
gives us the chance to clean house and find all the silverware Daphne has
hidden away. :)
 
Since we're showing all of our babies, I started talking to one of my
managers about good shampoos to highlight colors and such things.  He
recommended the Coat Handler shampoo and conditioner.  We got the 15 to 1
16oz bottles yesterday.  A touch expensive, but it'll last forever and
ever, because it's made to be diluted with one tablespoon of shampoo or
conditioner to one cup of water.  We picked up a couple of 8 oz spray
bottles and diluted the shampoo and conditioner into those, and will
simply spray it onto the ferrets, rather than dumping it into my hand or
onto the ferret from a squeeze bottles.  It's a trick I picked up from
Marcie, the groomer at the store.  Basically, we now have shampoo for a
LONG, LONG time. :)  It's good stuff too.,
 
 
Michelle
 
--
Meet my pets.  The ferrets (Taz, Coffee, Daphne, and Tia), the gerbils (28
permanent residents and various babies), the zebra mouse (Racer), the rats
(five of them), the budgie (Sky), the cockatiel (Summer), and the fish
(various).
[Posted in FML issue 1257]