You know your ferrets have taken over your life when...you bathe your feet
in Bitter Apple before going to bed each night :-)
I'm sure there are biters who won't be stopped by this, but it's working
great in our house. I can now walk around barefoot all I want, and sleep
through the night with ferrets curled up at my side. Also, it always seems
hard to imagine at the time, but most of 'em grow out of the biting stage.
If you're one of those people with a 4 month old "biter", just hang in there
and keep on loving them.
My .02 on free-ranging ferts: Mine are loose all the time I am home. No
such thing as "too much" freedom -- they just sleep when they're tired.
HOWEVER, I always cage 'em when I leave the house. ALWAYS. The odds of
someone else entering the house in my absence, invited or otherwise, are
pretty slim, but the odds of fert disaster, were such to happen, are too
darn high for my taste. All my animals get treats before I walk out the
door, too.
BTW, ferret math and pet store horrors have combined forces to now require
me to use the plural when decribing the ferret population at our house.
Khaz (whose winter vacation on a sailboat in Alaska will await another
posting) now shares the joint with a yellow panda whose temporary name is
"Chomp" (yours would be too if you spent the first six months of your eight
month lifespan in a tiny aquarium). I'm a believer in new names for new
life stages, and Chomp is almost ready for a new name already.
One more note. If you've never ordered anything from Trish Curtis (see ad
issue of FML), you should, just for the fun of opening the package and
seeing the little slip in the bottom that says "Packed by Ferret #3",
accompanied by signature and pawprint. Too cool.
-- Kim "You know, raisins ARE kind of tasty."
Chomp "What IS that little wrinkled thing? You EAT that???"
Khaz "Nah, just leave it for me and I'll get rid of it."
Sockeye "When do we get another CAT, huh?"
Kobe "Eat the damn raisins and leave my bones alone."
[Posted in FML issue 1835]
|