Hello FML!
Yesterday, my four Calif ferrets arrived to join the two I have had
here for abt three years. This happened thanks to a wonderful woman
from Ferrets Anonymous -- who prefers to remain anonymous! -- and
two of her ferret-loving friends.
Apparently the two flights and the two-night R&R at the Frankfurt
airport pet hotel went smoothly -- the ferrets' food and water water
supply was fine, and they were clean. They'd had a big hammock up above
the cage floor (all four traveled in one large cage), and as we hoped,
they must have spent most of their time up there.
When Abeba and I picked up the ferrets at Lufthansa/Ethiopian Airlines'
Cagro. building, the process went well, though slowly. The flight was
2+ hours late, and there was a procedure I hadn't been aware of in
which they had to be moved from the airport to the cargo building.
Luckily we found out about that before the flight arrived, and Abeba
and I drove over to Cargo.
Once we got there, there there was paperwork and confusion, but it got
straightened out. In the end, no Ministry of Agriculture person came
to inspect the ferts, but that was ok w us. After the first flurry of
paperwork and talking was over, as we waited, we got so tired that we
fell asleep on the benches. We'd been running around between the
Ministry of Agriculture, the Transportation Ministry, and the PO for
what seemed like a week in preparation for the ferrets' arrival.
When we got them, all were fine, though weaving heir heads around to
look out like a small pack of cobras. A guy sort of tried to shake us
down for a big tip after he'd put the crate in the car. We were two
women alone in a dark parking lot, but for some reason I wasn't
flummoxed -- plus, all I had was $13 Birr -- about $1.20!
I opened my wallet, laughed, told him I had only 13 Birr, and gave him
10 of them -- a massive tip in this context, though it comes only to
abt ninety cents in US terms. He protested in a slightly overbearing
way, but I just protested right back, having gotten a little irritated
by then, and showed him my wallet -- and the three Birr. Then he asked
for my phone number. I shadow-kissed his hand and we got into the car
and drove off.
So we drove home in the middle of the night, and Sisay and Tsige let
us in. We let the ferts out and saw that they were indeed just fine,
though David was a little nervous the only sign of it was that his
heart was going pretty fast, But he settled in quickly wth the others
into their part of the condominium -- as we call our big indoor
3-level Ferret Nation cage.
We separated the four new ferrets from the two old ferrets for the
night. The two old guys were in the top level, and the four new ones
were in the two lower levels. Jonas, who's been in Addis three years
and has had only quiet old Rico for a companion for over two of those
years was very interested, as you can imagine. Rico just went back to
sleep after a little while. I worried that maybe he did that because
he was unhappy, but he is still his old self.
After abt 30 minutes, I took Jonas out and held him up to the outside
of the levels where the new ferrets were. There was interested
sniffing on all parts, but no agitation that I could see.
In the morning we put them (new and old) into separate parts of the
outdoor pen. The new ones seemed to be ecstatic -- I think it was
their first time outside w grass and fresh air for about 18 months.
They played and played , dug big holes, and ran around and around,
checking it all out. Then they took a good nap.
After a couple of hours, we let the six ferrets get together, watching
closely, and that went smoothly for a couple of hours. Then the
leaders of the two groups -- Galen and Jonas -- had a mild battle
for dominance. They started out in the pen and then they ran up the
wire-mesh tunnel to my balcony and into my bedroom. I think Jonas won,
though he is smaller and older.
At any rate, after some minutes, when the squeaking started getting
louder, Sisay and I ran upstairs, and Sisay separated them and then
held them together, side by side and head to head. When Jonas hissed at
this, Sisay told him No and bumped him gently into Galen and made them
put their faces together a couple of times -- and then the conflict
stopped. A few hours later, I found the two of them sleeping together.
Also, this evening, Ale and Ricco, my old guy, were in a sleeping sac
together.
Just to be sure, we're separating them tonight in the condo, but we
expect that to be the end of the segregation.
Ale, one of the two new woman (!) ferrets (I've decided to, in my mind,
give them the dignity of considering them women and men/guys, rather
than girls and boys!), did some biting during the pre-flight part of
their trip, which included a 15-hour ride to Seattle (Seattle was the
nearest airport from which ferrets could fly), the vet visit for the
international health certificate, and a couple of nights in the other
two ferret lovers' house. There was also a USDA appointment (I think
without the ferrets) to get the US Dept of Agriculture stamp to
validate the health certificate. THANK YOU AGAIN AND AGAIN, DEAR KIND
AND PERSEVERING FERRETS ANONYMOUS WOMAN, YOUR FINE FIANCE (WHO HELPED
WITH ALL THAT DRIVING ), AND YOUR TWO EXCELLENT SEATTLE FRIENDS!
Ale also used to bite when she was little, but she hasn't given any
but the gentlest of bites since she arrived -- the kind I like --
can't really call them bites. We'll see how that goes as she gets more
confident -- though they all seem entirely confident and untraumatized.
Maybe that's because they have each other, and presumably they remember
me from their baby/childhood days, so I am a familiar presence.
Last night we didn't get home till 11:30pm, so our planned
ferret-arrival party was just the four regulars at our house -- me,
Abeba, Tsige, and Sisay -- plus T and S's 7-month-old baby. Also a
little time for David to cuddle.
Tsige had cooked some special food, and we enjoyed it -- plus the happy
satisfaction of the successful end of the many-months-long process.
[Posted in FML 6597]
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