I'm feeling bad. I feel like I'm one of those bad ferret parents you
always hear about.  My Podo, seven and a half years young... is missing.
 
While I was away from the house this morning, my two "least likely to get
out of a cage even with the door wide open" ferrets somehow got out of the
outdoor cage.  Gemn was quickly rounded up by my mother, who noticed her
running loose on the side of the road (!!) and who gathered up my "number
one bestest escape artist ever" ferret and my big boy Bancho who were still
in the cage.  The cage was locked, as always, and my escape artist was
inside it.
 
Two things could have happened.  One, my immediate thought.  They escaped.
Where from?  I don't know.  Wierd, since neither ferret can escape their
way out of a paper bag, but things happen.  My biggest worry was that my
Podo may get run over, since I live in a busy industrial section of town.
Thankfully, this has not happened!  Plus, I have to face it, Podo has
always been the biggest homebody ferret the world has ever seen.  Small and
scrawny (I got her at six months of age *severely* malnourished, and
although she recovered, she has never been more than what I'd label
'fragile') She's a 'fit' girl, but likes her sleep, would prefer to snuggle
in a warm spot than wardance unless very excited.
 
Six hours of futile searching later... and still nothing.  Podo isn't in
the building below us (she has been 'out' before and loves the building
below our house, since we used to have that area as well before it was
rented out) she hasn't been seen by anyone in the area.  Since this is the
industrial section of town, there are lots of people around, but no-one ever
sees anything <sigh>   At this stage, I'm even more worried.  Some signs of
her should have been seen...
 
At this point, the second possibility comes to me.  Yesterday I got a
visitor asking about ferrets.  In New Zealand, as in the UK and Australia,
a lot of people use their ferrets for 'ferreting' - they're used to flush
rabbits from a warren in order for the owners to kill them.  This man asked
several questions about ferreting, even taking time to take down Sheila's
URL in the UK to look up more info at a friends place, since he isn't
online.  I told him none of my ferrets, or their offspring would be much
use for rabbiting/ferreting.  Personally, I don't agree with my own animals
doing it, and someone who is new to ferrets (this man had never seen one
before seeing mine yesterday) should first learn how to care for an animal,
then learn how to work with them, IMO.  While he was looking at my ferrets,
he did see where the key to my outside cage was... After all, I needed it
to open the cage to allow him to visit my babies!  At my front door there
is a motion detector, since we live upstairs and the cage is below a window
downstairs... we can generally hear movement near the cage, and always hear
when someone comes through the door.  The motion detector went off twice,
and when my mother went downstairs to check on what was making the noise,
she found Gemn wandering on the road, the cage locked, and no- one in the
area.  <sigh> Podo was gone.  No sign of her at all, she wasn't in the
bushes, nor was she in the building below ours, nor near the neighbours
places... even though I arrived home shortly after mum's unhappy finding of
the 'escape' and her rushed gathering of the other ferrets to the indoor
cages (I had four ferrets outside).
 
In all reality, it's unlikely that this man stole my baby, but right now I
don't know what to think.  Podo has been missing now for twelve hours.
There's still no sign or word of her, and the whole street will be deserted
tomorrow, so all the less people to watch out for signs of her in case
she's wandering out there, in the rain :o( I'm feeling like I'm accusing
this guy unjustly, but also feeling like I need to tear his throat out and
grab my baby back!  I've had her for over seven years, and dearly miss her
already.  This man knows nothing about ferret care, and if she's put down a
rabbit hole and doesn't do what he expects?  What then?  She's not a young
sprite any more, and has already had her share of hard knocks, she doesn't
need some unfeeling S.O.B to do this to her!!  and if I'm wrong and she
escaped and is in the rain somewhere??  She doesn't need that either.
 
I've searched every darned bush in the area, and then some.  Moved all the
rocks, talked to all the people, even passersby and people in a RV a block
away!  I just want my baby back :o(
 
Signing off for now <sigh> hoping to find my Podo soon.
 
Sam
[Posted in FML issue 2499]