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From:
Gordon Bengtson CI/ASMEL <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 20 Nov 2003 15:57:47 -0500
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When I write to the FML I always sign with those ferts here and of course
Nibble-ed was one.  She was a white fert but not albino.  Her personality
was stand-offish, not particularly liking to be touched or held but would
put up with me handling her.  She would casually clamp on to a guest with
a good chomp but this was not a vicious chomp, is how she tested her
world.  I also had to be careful hand feeding her where I also would
often become a subject of a good chomp but she really just didn't know
any better, was not an intentional act of viciousness.
 
Nib was a most amazing animal with the intelligence unlike most other
ferts.  She had figured how to get on top of the kitchen counter by
putting her back on the wall behind a cabinet, then her feet on the
cabinet back and using her back on the wall to put pressure on her feet
she would walk up the back and get on top.  Used to make me madder than
hell to have her do that but I always had to laugh at her intelligence
and never punished her for this, just made barriers she could not
overcome.
 
I had built several very large cages, each one was different.  They were
4 feet long, 1 1/2 feet deep and 6 feet tall.  Each had all kinds of
floors and doors on every level for access and cleaning.  I kept one for
my crew and sold the rest.  Once I had one of these cages in the living
room for a prospective buyer and had to find all the ferts to put in the
cage to keep them from getting outside.  I found all except Nib.  I had
hunted for an hour looking in all the usual hidy holes but no luck.  I
searched in places I never looked at but no luck.  The buyer was about to
arrive and I was getting worried not being able to find Nib.  Having gone
thru every nook and cranny in the house for the umpteenth time I stopped
to ponder the for sale cage and inside laying in a hammy was Nib.  All
the doors and gates to the cage were still shut and clamped so how did
that little $)&)$ get in there!
 
Nib and climbed up the side to get into the top of an empty Ferret Store
'J' feeder, had managed to get down the inside and thru the bottom and
got into the cage that way and was happily curled up in a hammy having
that cage all to herself !  Ha!
 
Nib was able to get on top of the fire place mantel, have not to this
day figured out how she was able to get up there but she used to make a
regular visit there to knock off everything on display there.
 
In the bedroom I have a large women's dresser with 3 drawers on each end
and a cabinet with 3 small drawers in the middle.  Here another time I
could not find Nib.  Had searched for hours never finding her and then
she would show up.  This happened quite a few times but I never did find
her hidy hole until one day I was needing some sox and had a whole case
of new sox in one of those end drawers.  Opening the drawer there were
the socks, each pair in a plastic bag lined up neat and tidy except one
pair that had a hole in the plastic bag and this small white beady eyed
furry face peaking out at me.  Ha!  Nib was in a sock like it was a
sleeping bag.  She had managed to pry the plywood back from the cabinet
enough to gain access in and out and had been doing this for quite some
time.  That back was held on with long staples, have no idea how she
figured out how to get that back pried off never mind how she figured out
that by doing so she would gain access but she did.  Amazing creature.
 
Nib was not very sociable at all and not one to join in with humans
about, but she would tolerate me, barely.  Especially at raisin time.
I had always said that if I had to loose one and was given a choice it
would be Nib.  Nib was not the first fert I lost but when she passed I
truly missed her and even had night mares over her loss.  Byte-me
searched for her for months and now 6 months later Byte-me is showing
adjustment by bonding closer to Kodo, a rescue who is here forever.
 
Such good little creatures I am so very fortunate to have their company.
 
Gordon, Byte-me and Kodo
Missing Podo, Bud and Nibble-ed
[Posted in FML issue 4338]

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