As Caruso awaits his unmanning, it's time to post a couple cute ferret
stories.
 
The Umbrella
After a heavy rain, I left the big black umbrella open in the living room to
dry.  It's been a dry late summer and early fall, so Caruso, then 5 months
old, had never seen one opened before.  He jumped at it a bit, but quickly
got bored when it didn't fight back.  A couple hours later, I went to fold
it up.  Caruso was playing nearby, and jumped at the sound.  So I flapped it
a couple times at him.  He dived behind the big overstuffed arm chair, and
after a few seconds, peeked out again.  I flapped, and he dived for cover
again.  This went on several times, until he got braver.  I had to flap
harder to get him to keep his distance.  Finally, he decided he could take
it on, and leapt into the fray.  I suddenly realized this was a bad idea,
flapped furiously to get Caruso to run and hide again, and quickly put the
umbrella away.
 
Scaring the p--- out of him
I was working at the kitchen counter, and Caruso was dooking about as usual.
He decided to head to the family room, and tromped over my bare feet on the
way. Just as he crossed my feet, I sneezed suddenly and loudly. He raced for
behind the bookcase, feet skittering across the floor. I looked down at my
feet. They were wet. I'd literally scared the p--- out of him!
 
General ferret comparisons
Caruso, at almost 6 months old is closing in on 3 lbs, much larger than
little Belle, who is 1.25 lbs soaking wet.  He dominates her in play, just
leaping and bowling her over.  She has learned some techniques for dealing
with him.  He doesn't fit under the stove anymore, for example.  She also
goes under the tv stand or arm chair, which he can get under, but only after
slowing down and worming his way under.  In the meantime, she presents a set
of sharp little teeth to bar his way.  When she tries to attack him, he
turns his broad back to her.  They are so different: she's as thin and agile
as he is solid and forthright.
 
He is much more cuddly than she was at his age.  She never slowed down
enough to cuddle til she was a year old, but he is quite cuddly and will now
snooze in a lap.  Naps don't last long though, he re-energizes quickly.
 
He also gets in more trouble than Belle did, or at least it sometimes seems
so.  He just so much bigger and stronger that he can do things she can't,
like climbing over the baby gate, climbing into the tub, and knocking over
Richard's big mug of water he likes to keep by the bed.  He also likes to
pee all over the place.  On the other hand, he never put a hole in the
waterbed like Belle did, and even though he chews a bit on shoes, he doesn't
hide Joy's sneakers so that she almost misses the bus, and he never ruined a
pair of my dress shoes (not that I wear dress shoes that often anyway).  And
of course, we've ferret-proofed a lot over the last couple years, so he
doesn't have all the opportunities Belle had.  I guess he ain't so bad after
all.  :-)
 
This post has gotten quite long, so I'll call it quits for now.
 
Linda (43), Richard (51), Joy (almost 12), Belle (3) and Caruso (5.5 months)
[Posted in FML issue 1347]