Elsa was the second ferret I got, about two years ago.  She was 3 1/2 years
old.  She was the first of my three shelter ferrets, all from the Oregon
Ferret Shelter.  I guess she was a little over a year old when her family
gave her up.  I don't know exactly what kind of life she'd had before me,
but it always seemed like it was hard for her.  She was probably neglected,
and definitely not handled enough.  When I got her she was nippy and
suspicious of your intentions.  It took her a couple months to get used to
me, to my picking her up and scratching her and playing w/her.  She did stop
nipping and got more attentive.  I tend to think that social behaviors are
learned by animals when they are babies and young adults, and so I wonder
just how she was treated when she was little.  Out of my four ferrets, she
was the one who preferred to be by herself, most of the time.
 
She had her moments though: bear posing for ferretone, dutiful attempts to
acquire any shoe that dared to enter the room unprotected by humans (even
shoes 4 times her size), playing blanket-toss (which always resulted in
three hops and a *THUNK* as she fell off the bed).
 
She was awfully cute when she wanted to play and would puff up and bounce
around, inevitably falling over once or twice.  She had the prettiest coat,
thick and scruffy.  Lately she'd been going through her "yellow phase" and
was quite pretty.
 
I miss her and hope she's okay, wherever she may be...
 
Minta
(Linus, Martin & Zooey)
[Posted in FML issue 2201]