As promised, the following is the story of the disasterous move that we all
made from State College PA to Gilbertsville, PA.  My ferrets made me promise
that they could tell it, so here goes, from their lips.  It's really long,
so it will be in parts.  They tell me the story is funny, (probably cuz of
all the stuff that went wrong) so if you need some humor, read on.
 
 *************PART ONE*************************
<Shadow>
Since I'm the King of the Rescue, I'm going to tell the story, but the other
brats, uh, I mean ferrets, want to put in their two pennies too later.
 
It all started last Wednesday.  Mommy kept putting all of her stuff in
boxes.  I'm special and I'm allowed to go upstairs to the living
room/kitchen, with Stinky (oops I mean Slinky) and Fatso (Patches).  There
were soooo many cool boxes, mommy kept packing stuff in and me and the other
two kept jumping in them and mommy would tape the boxes then hear us
scratching in them.  She was not happy with us!  Then Slinky must have
figured out that all of his cool stuff was getting put away, cuz mommy was
sittin on the couch, watching TV, taking a break from the stress, and Slinky
kept walking in front of the TV, first dragging empty newspaper wrapping
bags, then he took two newspapers still in the bags, then a Wal Mart Bag.
Mommy laughed, but didn't care that he was stashing them under the sink cuz
she didn't need them.  But then, all of a sudden Slinky ran by, top speed,
with Mommy's screwdriver set (it's kept in a plastic bag too).  Mommy jumped
up and Slinky ran away, he tried to get under the sink but the screwdrivers
were getting in the way of the hole.  Mommy picked them up and Slinky
wouldn't let go, so he just hung in the air holding onto these tools.  It
was funny but mom wasn't pleased.  She spent the next hour trying to fish
out stuff from under the sink (the hole was barely big enough to get her arm
in).  She found six squeak toys, three cat toys and a catnip mouse, five
newspapers, I-don't-know how many empty plastic bags, a bag of cat treats,
three pens, and a potato.  She kept saying how much time she wasted fishing
this stuff out of the cubbyholw.  After that she locked us away and wouldn't
let us out again.
 
Thursday evening Mommy had to pick up the moving truck.  I didn't go with
her but I heard her later talk about it.  She asked for the biggest truck
they had.  Well it turned out to be a 26 foot truck (32 foot total length)
with a stick shift and it took diesel gas.  We all heard the truck coming to
the house and it shook the windows.  Mommy came into the room to let some of
us out and when she picked me up she was shaking cuz she was sooo scared of
the truck!  She told all of us that that day would be the last day for a
while that we'd get normal runtime.  WHAT???  Displace us so you can move?
NO FAIR!  She said that we had people coming at 8 a.m the next day to load
the truck and that we should enjoy the runtime while we had it.  She let us
out.  Then, at midnight, all of a sudden daddy and some other big dude came
in and started taking furniture and boxes out of the house, and mommy was
really upset.  Something about the people who were supposed to be coming the
next morning said they weren't coming, and she didn't have anyone else to
help her, which meant this big dude had to come right then.  So back we went
in the cage, runtime cut short.  I didn't like that, and mommy forgot to
give me my daily raisins.  HOW DARE SHE!  Then, they came into MY ROOM and
started taking cages, toys, litter boxes, and our big buffet-converted into
a ferret play room!  I stood at the cage and scratched and bit and made all
kinds of fuss.  Where's my stuff going???  Hey!  That's my favorite squeak
toy!  Where's that crinkle sack going?  HEY!  STOP THIEF!  The cats (those
stupid creatures) were all messed up.  They were cowering and freaking and
crying.  What babies.  Finally, after mommy kept ignoring me I just went to
sleep.
 
Friday came, and there was a lot of stuff out of the house but even more
that was still waiting to be loaded.  Mommy was freaking out cuz she didn't
have anyone to load the truck.  Grandma was coming to "transport animals"
and we were all supposed to be on the road by 3:30.  I snoozed for a bit
again, and when I woke up grandma was there and she had all of these "cat
carriers" as she called them but us ferrets didn't like that cuz they were
going to carry ferrets, so they should be called ferret carriers.  Oh well.
Daddy's brothers left work early and they came over to load the truck, and
all they did all day was complain about how daddy and the big dude had
loaded the truck the night before.  Something about how it was unstable and
everything wasn't going to fit.  Next thing I knew I saw Ricky and Sassy and
Spaghetti get pulled from their cage and put into these carriers.  Grandma
took them but left me....HEY!!!  DON'T FORGET ME!!!  I tried to yell, but
nobody paid any attention to me.  There were still four other ferrets plus
me though so I figured they'd come back for us.
 
Sometime around 7 pm mommy came back to our really empty ferret room.  She
had more of those carrier things, and started to put us, one by one, in
them.  She was acting really funny.  She was yelling at daddy and saying
that she was behind schedule, and that she was going to flip that truck
trying to drive it.  Man, someone give that chick some Valium!  We were all
really brave, though; it seemed like we were going on an expedition and we
were ready.  Those silly cats, though, were still crawling around and
crying, and being really stupid.  Such wimps!  Next thing we knew, me and
Slinky and Patches and three of the cats, Boomer, Bam Bam, and Ivy, were all
stuffed into mommy's car, but daddy was going to drive that.  Koto and
Trouble went into the big 26 foot truck, in the cab, with mommy.  HEY!!!
WHY THEM???  How come the King of the Rescue doesn't get to ride with
mommy????  NO FAIR!!  But again they ignored me.  I had to ride with the
stupid cats.  The other three cats, Misty, Loki, and Shamus, were already
gone with Grandma, along with Ricky, Sassy and Spaghetti.  I hoped they got
lost somewhere and never made it to where we were going.  More attention for
me if they did!  (Just kidding mommy).  Daddy started the car, and then we
heard this roar and the big truck came to life.  We looked once more at the
house that once was ours, and then it was gone, out of sight.  A new
adventure was about to begin.... (Part Two tomorrow: On The Road)
 
Kymberlie Becker
Director, Pennsylvania Ferret Rescue Association
"Forget Puppy Love...There's nothing Greater than Ferret Love!" TM
http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/ferretlady
[Posted in FML issue 1958]