Today I was doing some cleaning around the apartment and had a large dishpan
of a solution of Simple Green and water sitting on the floor.  Of course,
Felix and Mazie had to check out the "foamy stuff".  Mazie dunked her front
paws twice before she realized that it was _wet_ foamy stuff.  Felix, on the
other hand, took advantage of a moments distraction on my part to steal the
sponge right out of the bucket.  Pretty daring for someone who hates getting
wet.
 
After retrieving the sponge from under my dresser (their favorite and
closest hiding spot) I dunked it in the bucket and turned my back to clean
some more marks off the walls (my roommate isn't to careful and the
maintainance people are coming by tomorrow).  I turned around to see Felix
lifting his foam-covered head out of the dishpan.  After laughing
hysterically and trying to find a camera (No luck.  Darn!) I rinsed him off
and called the folks at Simple Green to make sure that he'd be alright.
 
I relayed the incident to the woman saying, "I have a ferret who just dunked
his head in to of bucket of Simple Green, and I just want to make sure that
he'll be alright."  Her first question was, "Do you live in California?"
asked in a rather concerned tone.  I told her that I don't and the guys are
legal.  She was concerned about whether I could get him to a vet if I needed
to.  She then said that as long as it was diluted, he should be fine.  It's
a bit of an eye irritant so she suggested rinsing his eyes if he'd let me
and said that getting him to drink some water would be good just to further
dilute any that he might have swallowed.
 
But, she _knew_ what a ferret was!  Didn't have me repeat the problem.
Didn't say "You've got a WHAT that dunked it's head?" She knew.  That was so
cool.  I've always liked Simple Green, but that just gave me one more reason
to use it and recommend it.  Felix is fine, BTW.
 
However, I supposed that I may have fibbed a bit in speaking to the woman.
I said that Felix and Mazie are legal, but I heard somewhere that you're
_supposed_ to have a permit to own ferrets in New Jersey.  Is that true?
Does anyone know where I can get info on this?  I got both of these guys
from their former owners (friends of friends; one was allergic, and the
other bought a dog and her parents made her choose one or the other) so it's
not like some pet store should have told me or anything.  The only reason I
ask is because we're not even supposed to have them in the apartment, but
things like that are not really enforced judging by the dog that barked at
me one night and the woman who was taking her bird to get see his
"girlfriend".  However, if they do find out/decide to make a stink about it
(the management, not the ferrets) I want to have everything in order, just
in case.
 
Sorry this wound up a bit on the lengthy side.  I tend to ramble when I'm
typing.
 
Many hugs and licks of ferretone to the fuzzy ones,
Kathy and Felix & Mazie (spending the night at Nan's so they ain't found out
'bout)
[Posted in FML issue 1902]