Hi gang,
 
Just wanted to update y'all on stuff goin' on here.  (I can say *y'all*, cuz
I am a *true Texan*, therefore it is my birthright.......<wink> to Roxanne).
 
Angel is doing good, she sat in my lap last night for ten to fifteen minutes
just wanting to be petted and have her naked back scratched.  She licked and
cleaned me too, it seems I did not do a good enough job in the shower before
I sat down to play with her (trying to keep her from getting the greenies,
you know).  She is getting Totally Ferret and 12cc's Deliver 2.0 twice a
day.  Her poop looks pretty good for a fuzzy in her condition (for those
'poop experts' out there who want to know).  She is really fond of humans,
that is neat.  She loves to be cuddled and loves attention.
 
The new little boy who was such a serious biter has not bitten me again
since the one time last Monday morning (and 6 times on Sunday).  But he got
Donna yesterday as she was stepping over the baracade to leave the
"ferret-proofed" bathroom where he was playing.  He nipped her achilles
tendon hard enough to make it bleed.  I hope he won't be a "one-person
ferret".  Wednesday night I even got kisses from him.  What a
transformation!!
 
Festus is very happy to announce that he has his 'bachelor pad' all to
himself again.  Ally moved out, it was a mutual agreement that they reached
since she really wanted her own place too.  He was crowding her space.  I
had thought that since they were about the same age and 'speed' that they
would like to be together.  Boy, was I wrong!!  They were both very
possessive of the hammock and of the T-shirts and sleeping bags in the cage
and they even had to have separate food bowls.  (They never ate from the
other's dish either.) There were many squabbles and I just decided they were
truly 'unhappy' together, so I gave up and separated them.  Ally came down
with the greenies two days later also, so perhaps it is good.  I know she
wasn't feeling well for a couple of days before and was probably grumpier
because of that.  They are both just ecstatic about the 'separation'.
 
White Fang/TJ is lost somewhere in cyberspace with MO Bob.  She is supposed
to be arriving here "sometime in August", so now that it is August, I am
really getting excited.  Can't wait to meet her, though I hear she is really
keeping Bob on his toes, and fresh out of 'fruit-newton'  bars.  <snicker>
 'Course I shouldn't laugh, she will probably keep me on my toes too, that is
all I need, another really smart one!!  (Donna and I are still trying to
figure out how Chance climbed the shelves over the commode in the bathroom,
and draped himself on *top* of the picture frame that is *above* the shelves,
the picture frame is over *my* head).
 
Have a cat, a ferret, and a horse coming today.  (No, I don't rescue
horses!) The horse is Donna's, coming home from training and she is an
"outside horse".  The cat and the ferret are 'boarders', that eventually go
to NM.  Eydie and I will probably transfer them when we meet next, and they
can ride out there with her.  I am also 'baby-sitting' a turtle at the
moment.  Life is certainly not *dull* here.
 
Got a call at 7:30 am this morning with 4 more rescues that will be coming
in the first part of next week.  The person is moving and says he can't take
the ferrets.  Grrrrrrr!!!  People infurriate me somedays.  They don't just
give their children away!!!
 
Oh, great!!!  I just looked over at Ally and she is **eating her dry food on
her own** already.  I fed her "Meg's Magic Mush" and straight Deliver 2.0
yesterday, but she didn't take much.  It is amazing that she is eating on
her own this quickly, it usually takes several days of the mush first.  I am
so happy now.  Maybe she will recover quickly, she is four years old so I
was a little worried about how she would do.
 
I guess I should tell you the story of what happened Sunday afternoon.  Eydie
thought it was hillarious, when I told her.  I guess I just had to work up
the nerve to tell the story to the whole ferret-world.  Well, here goes....
 
This happened last Sunday afternoon.  I had arrived a few hours earlier with
this new boy, we had sat on the bathroom floor (a ferret-safe room and one
of the play areas here) and I worked with him.  He bit me several times, but
seemed to learn quickly that I wasn't going to discipline him for it, as I
was trying to understand *why* he bites first, then figure out how to
correct it.  I discovered quickly that he bites to protect himself.  He was
so abused that he believed all humans were mean and would hit him so he
decided he would bite them *first*.  Well, when I did not hit him, it really
puzzled him.  He soon let me pet him and hold him, though I was careful.  He
was learning to trust a little I think.
 
He had been on cedar shavings and his skin was very irritated from that.  He
even "smelled" of cedar.  So I bathed him to get it off of him and to
relieve the skin irritation.  It helped alot, though with his back problem I
think standard baths are probably 'out' for him in the future, I'll have to
devise another method.  He is afraid to be bathed so he fights and I fear he
could hurt himself.  Well, as is normal for ferrets, he had a ball drying
off on the towels I had laid on the floor for him.  He wasn't trying to bite
me at all by now and I felt he was at least thinking that maybe we could be
friends, but he was very cautious.  This was understandable so I was giving
him 'his space'.
 
After all this, I needed a shower too.  Mom called just as I was walking
toward the bathroom and she wanted me to come over for lunch, I said okay,
but I wanted to take a shower first.  She said that was fine.
 
The phone rings off the wall here so, as usual, it kept right on.  There
were two more calls before I could even get into the shower, but I finally
made it.  I managed to take my shower finally and I just had reached to turn
off the water when the phone rang again (I always take the phone with me
even in the shower, cuz you just never know when it will be something
important like an ill ferret, or a rescue, or other fuzzy-emergency).  I
opened the shower door reached for the phone and it was mom again, she asked
what I was doing I said "I told you I was going to take a shower" she said,
but that was 45 minutes ago" .  "Oh." I said "Sorry, I guess I got tied up
on the phone".  So then I go to step out of the shower, grab the towel and
start to dry off while still talking to mom on the phone and this ferret
goes *nuts*!  (I guess it was the smell of soap or the texture of wet skin.)
He started lunging and biting my feet, ankles, legs, and the towel.  He is
*serious* too.  I am dancing all over the bathroom, trying to still talk to
mom without screaming from this "attacking ferret", swishing the towel every
direction to try and distract him, but it only works for a moment, then he
is biting *me* again.  In desperation, and still dripping wet, I finally
jump up on the commode to get away from him.  I told mom I had to get off
the phone because I was trapped, standing on the toilet, with only a towel
between me and this berserk ferret.
 
I laid the phone down on the counter, stood there for a second thinking how
I could not believe all this was really happening.  This little ferret had
me standing on my commode like a little old granny afraid of a mouse and
leaping on her kitchen table to get away from it.  I tried to compose
myself, draped one end of the towel over him, holding tightly onto the other
end, jumped down, and made a mad dash to the door, taking the towel with me,
and leaped over the baracade.  (Not an easy trick I'll tell ya.) I dried off
in the hall.  (Glad I was the only one here when all this was happening, it
could have been more embarrasing that it already was.) It is pretty bad when
you have to "escape" from your own bathroom.  Needless to say, I have decide
he will *not* be in the bathroom when I or Donna shower in the future!!!
 
Kisses to the fuzzy kids.
 
Trish
Director, Ferrets First Rescue & Shelter
[Posted in FML issue 1650]