Greetings all in the world of ferrets.
 
I thought I had a stressful life 'til I thought 'bout Bob Church: chicken
pox, totalled car, broken bones, a crumpled Mac and camera, and being sent
home.  I'm content with my life, now! :-)
 
Thanks to all who responded about my 3-year rabies (not distemper) shot.
I'm going to go hunting for sources of testing information to print out for
my vet; if anyone (ie. TLE, Ilena, Mary McCarty) has some handy, would you
mind passing it on?
 
I have something to add to the ferret-proofing list: couches.  Yes, we know
about the reclining chairs, and the danger of sitting on your fuzzies while
their cushion-sharking, but my ferrets like to slip *into* the couch and
stash things inside.  To my shame, I must say that I let them, because I
only paid $25 for the couch and it needs replacing anyways, and what harm
could it do...
 
However, ferrets may eat the stuffing (although mine didn't).  And, alas, I
found out another danger.  I picked up Baxter yesterday morning and found
to my horror that his little penis-hole was about 1" bigger, sliced open.
The only thing I can think of is that he sliced himself open on the
springs.  I never noticed before that they were out in the open; foolish,
foolish, foolish me.  So, while Baxter was in surgery, Craig and I rented a
van and moved the couch and chair out to his place, and picked up his futon
for mine.  I knew it had to happen eventually; a futon is the safest thing
for a ferret.  So, no more stashing toys in the couch (although it sure
gave me a giggle to watch, and it was fun to hear Sam giggle over it while
she was here.  You've got a great giggle, Sam!).
 
I'm rather disgruntled at the little bugger because he was acting perfectly
fine, eating, drinking, dooking and playing.  If I didn't check the fuzzies
over habitually when I pick them up I would never have suspected anything
was wrong.  With a big gaping wound, he *should* have been lying prostrate
on the ground so that I could *see* something was wrong!  When the drugs
wore off (about 1 hour later) he was dooking and dancing and jumping all
over.  Stupid boy.
 
What's funny, though, is that he really is a vacumn cleaner- eating
everything.  He happily and voluntarily licked up .75 cc's of antibiotics
this morning.  Weird.
 
Someone asked once how much ferrets cost.  I would say probably no more
than any other animal, but I'm starting a separate bank account for my
fuzzies, and putting in about $30 per fert per month.  Perhaps I'll have
some saved up for the next time (which I hope to be when they are very,
very old- like 10).
 
Ariel and her duo
Jasper "Just feed me and let me sleep"
Baxter "This little ole scratch? That's nothin'!"
[Posted in FML issue 2432]