Imagine this scene:
You walk into a room and find a large dog - a Pit Bull/German Shepherd mix,
to be precise - holding a ferret down between his front legs, with the
ferret's head in his mouth.  HORRORS!  you say.  But wait, now the dog is
yelping...  the ferret wriggles away...  the ferret runs around behind the
dog, jumps on his back, runs up his neck and bites the dog's ear!  Who is
attacking whom?  Actually, they're playing, and they go at it for hours at a
time!  It usually starts when Alfalfa (the ferret) runs past Tor (the dog),
jumps up and nips him on the nose, then dives under the nearest armchair.
Tor will chase him all over the house, until they eventually get into their
wrestling match.  Eighty pounds of sheer muscle against one fuzzy ferret
(with teeth)!  It's incredible to watch them roll around together; you'd
swear Alfalfa was about to meet his demise as Tor dives for him, grabs him
in his mouth, and holds him down or tosses him around.  When Alfalfa gets
away, Tor will roll over on top of him - or so it appears.  Watching them
for a while, you begin to see that Tor actually realizes that he has to be
gentle with the little guy.  I've seen the same sensitivity in horses with
small children or puppies, and I guess Tor's restraint shouldn't surprise
me, as he's great with kids and my cats.  But still, here is an animal with
a jaw strong enough to snap a cow's femur in two, playing with a 2 lb.
ferret like it was a rag doll!
 
It gets really funny, too. Alfalfa will dive under a pillow, and when Tor
puts his head under the pillow in pursuit, Alfalfa will emerge on the other
side of the pillow, run around and hop on Tor's back - clinging with all
four feet to scramble up to Tor's head before he gets shaken off - to sink
his teeth into one of those handy ears! Or sometimes Alfalfa dives between
Tor's back legs and bites him on the butt or other private parts! Another
yelp from Tor! I hope to get this on video tape - it's got to be seen to be
believed!
 
I'm fairly new to life-with-ferrets: got my first, Clover, a cute little
girl, in February, because my boyfriend's kids wanted a ferret. Clover
spent her first few months at my boyfriend's place, because we thought Tor
would hurt her. But as they got acquainted, we realized that Tor seemed to
sense that he had to be gentle with her. As a result, Clover ended up
living with me (and Tor, two cats and a parrot). I started to feel sorry
for her being alone in her cage all day while I was at work (at least that
was my excuse), so I got her a companion, Alfalfa, who is now a 10-week
male (silver mitt, I think you'd call him - I haven't got the color
descriptions down yet - he's creamy white all over, with dark hairs mixed
in on his back, tail, and the top of his head).
 
That's when the fun began! Alfalfa and Tor are absolutely nuts about each
other! When I brought Alfalfa home, Tor lost all interest in Clover and
became completely fascinated with Alfalfa. (Which was OK with Clover; she
got tired of being stepped on during Tor's relentless monitoring of her
activities.)  Alfalfa is going to be a big boy, I think. He looks like
miniature polar bear now: huge white feet and a big white face with bright
little black eyes. We can't wait to see how the ferret/dog games develop as
Alfalfa gets bigger!
 
Nancy and the menagerie:
Tor (duh, where'd he go???)
Alfalfa (why walk when I can bounce?)
Clover (I empty the shelves.)
Spunky (cat) (hey, I like ferret-wrestling too, you know!)
Elsa (cat) (go away, leave me alone!)
Tim (boyfriend) (you took my ferret!)
 
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       (-@^@-)      "it's out there!"
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[log in to unmask] (Nancy Farlow)
[Posted in FML issue 1273]