Hidy hole ferret neighbors!  We hope you all are having a good fourth!  A
suggestion on shots...we stay at our vet's office for 20-30 minutes after
being given shots.  For the last two years the fur babies have had
reactions to the distemper shots they've been given.  I keep a close eye on
them and send them right back to my vet to get the "fixer" shot.  That way
I don't have to drive and keep an eye on them and worry about getting back
to the vet before it's too late to save them.
 
Nope, t-shirts haven't been accepted here.  I bought one and it was too big
for all but one of my guys and the one it did fit just laid there looking
at me like I was an idiot, then crawled out of it.
 
Over the years of having furballs in my life I don't know if we have truly
bonded.  Yes, I love them and they are happy to play with me but have we
bonded?  Or a better question, what is bonding with a ferret?  Is it that
they rely on me to care for their needs?  or Do they consider me to be a
big, ugly, balding ferret?  I think the problem I am having is that I
consider my dogs and I to be bonded.  I am the alpha and usually run the
show, they get depressed if I am gone for a long period of time.  Etc.
and so on, but does this happen with ferrets?
 
Recently I have been noticing their conditioned responses to my actions.
 
For example: when letting them out to play-each one will come out of the
cage to where I am sitting for their initial neck scratch (which BTW if I
do it well enough Booger will do the leg scratch thing like my dogs do and
his tail will poof out hehehe) then run off to play.
 
Now if it has been a while, say twenty minutes, from the time they were
let out and I sit on the floor they all run up and put their front feet
on my leg or stand on their hind legs.  This of course is the "where's
the raisin's?" stance.  If I ask them "what do you want?" at least 2 of
them will run around sniffing the floor then come back to me doing the
raisin stance again.
 
The ferretone scenario is similar.  I get the ferretone out and sit it
on the floor next to me.  They come up, sniff it, then either lay on
their sides, or in a standing position, and sniff their bellies.  This
is because most of the time the ferretone is out, they get their nails
clipped with ferretone on their bellies.
 
Ok, now you get the idea.  They do other things like "fake potty" but I
digress.  Now I could be one of those people that believe animals are just
animals and anything they do is just a conditioned response or part of
animal instinct and the reasons for some of their actions toward me is
because I feed them, but I'm not.  I have too many reasons why I'm not
that sort of person but I won't bore you too much longer.
 
Lately I have taken to "being a ferret".  We play as usual but I've been
playing games they make up instead of games I've made up.  I have also
joined them in the flat ferret state that they sometimes do when bored or
tired.  Yesterday they were picking out where they wanted to take a little
nap so I laid on the floor under my bed with them.  Usually, they will
wonder off to some snug place to sleep and never ever will they sleep next
to or on me.  Yesterday 2 of them settled down right next to my head and
went to sleep.  Later, my youngest (a biter that doesn't bite very hard
anymore but still bites) took my finger in his mouth and tried to drag me
to his hidey hole.  He has also "flea bitten" me, that little front teeth
grooming thing they do (dogs do it a lot).
 
Now I'm thinking what does this mean?  Why did they do that?  I read the
post about the two ferrets that came to their mom whilst having their kits
and wondered if they did that because they trust her or that they take
comfort in her or because she had the almighty ferretone?  I want to think
it's because they love her and wanted her around during the births and the
ferretone was just a bonus for them.
 
What do y'all think?  Have your ferrets done things that make you feel like
you're part of the business?
 
Have a Yankee Dookle Dandy Day!
Laura
[Posted in FML issue 2731]