Yes, ladies and gentlemen, its the World Ferret Wrestling Championships!
 
Last night, the fuzzies (who have been regrettably kept in their cages for
their own safety) were left out.  They have had to remain in their cages due
to a very "squeezie" baby that is visiting for a few days.  He believes that
fuzzies are just self-propelled stuffed animals that can be squeezed until
the buttons pop off!  :(
 
Anyway, the baby went to bed in an FFZ, so they could be left out for a
short time.  Since they had been in their cage for over 24 hours, they were
all wound up tighter than a box full of springs!  I have a low coffee table
in front of the couch and it was hilarious to see fuzzies jumping straight
up in the air from behind the table, as one attacked the other.  They
climbed and ran and jumped and tumbled and just had a great time.
 
One of my females--Rusti--is older than the other two girls (but she is not
the oldest of the lot).  For some reason, she just doesn't seem to tolerate
close proximity of the other girls.  As a result, if one of the girls gets
near, she will tackle them and (in a firm but obviously not harmful way)
teach them the error of their path.
 
Last night, her location of choice was under the love seat.  However, she
neglected to tell the other fuzzies.  My *toughest* fuzzie --Misti-Ferret--
made the mistake of going under the love seat to see what might be happening
under there (the interior of the love seat is a ferret playground).  I heard
the tell-tale squealing and squeaking of another successful attack by Rusti.
Typically though, the battles take place out in the open, where the
unfortunate fuzzie has a chance to make a run for it.  However, under the
love seat, there is only one exit (actually, there are two, but the other
one involves me lifting up a seat cusion, peeling back the spring cover and
reaching in to scoop up a fuzzie) and Misti-Ferret was not in the proper
place to make good her escape!
 
From my seat on the couch, I can see where the fuzzies go in and out of the
love seat.  I say poor Misti-Ferret's head and shoulders make it out of the
exit, but then she was slowly dragged back into the fight (just like on the
cartoons!) with Rusti.  You could see that was was resigned to getting "beat
up" for a little while longer, as she put up no resistance at all to being
pulled back under.
 
Just so that everyone understands, getting "beat up" by Rusti is no major
problem with the other ferrets.  There is no real "Alpha" male or female in
my house...they all play together (though Rusti and Silver are caged
together, while the rest share another cage, when they are all put back in
for the night) and have run of most of the house.  I've even spotted other
fuzzies sleeping on Rusti!  She just gets these moods where she thinks that
things need to be hashed out.  She never seems to hurt the other girls and
the other girls never appear to be keeping their distance from her, so I
would tend to think that it's just a "ferret" thing that they are going
through.
 
Todd and the (Bell?  What Bell?  I didn't hear the "End Of Round" Bell!)
Fuzzbutt Rodeo Clowns!
 
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[Posted in FML issue 2392]