kong kitty snake on a stick.....7.99 at petco
Seeing Mo-zilla chew something besides my toes.......$1 million
Seeing Taz really play .......................absolutely priceless!!

Tazzy is my latest rescue. He had no toys, had no clue as to what they
are and what to do with them. As he's been coming out of his shell, we
get the occasional dance, poke of fun at my orange toes, (another story
all together) but mostly, he turns into Mo- zilla....and bites my toes.
It is not safe to walk up the hall...Mozilla finds this to be the best
of fun to run alongside, nipping toes, much the same way a dog will nip
tires of a car it is chasing....thank goodness he's not a dog.....and
for that matter, I am not a car! This is not reserved for me, however!!
He is an equal opportunity nipper. My husband and my two teens can be
heard.."You stinker!..Tazzy No!...Mommmmmmmm!" And so the search for a
solution begins...

First....the polar bear. It is a quite soft webkin polar bear the is
about the same size as Taz and has a long nose that might be thought
of as ferret shaped. And so....Tazzy nips toes, we wrestle with bear.
We do this for three days. Tazzy will bite him a little, but seems to
more want to get away and continue with the toe selection. With 40 toes
in the house to choose from, he can shop, and not everyone has "that
bear". On the forth morning I wonder what he really thinks of the bear,
so I sit the bear next to his soup. As he moseys into the kitchen,
he stops short when he sees the bear. It's "that bear". the one who
wrestles. Hmm....he takes a few steps towards the soup, suspicious,
looks at the bear, then the soup, then the bear again. I am watching
this to see how he is going to handle the situation. He wants the
soup...but the bear....He takes a few more small steps, eyes the bear,
then the soup, then the bear again...He does this several times,
finally getting close enough to eat his soup, but he is leaning as far
from the bear as possible to do it. I chuckle, and pick up the bear so
he can eat without getting upset tummy. This leads to a problem. Is he
afraid of the bear? You can't play with something that scares you,
though some folks play with fire, it's not something they want to do
all the time. (unless they're pyro.. but I digress)

what to do...what to do....need a better solution. I needed dog food
fert litter and a few other things, so off to petsmart. I love to shop
their kitty section for fert toys. They had this long snake ,red on
top, black on the bottom with feathers on the nose, a rattle in the
head and a stick built into the very tail of the thing so hoomins can
twirl it and do interesting things with it.Well......I have to wait
until the next morning since my other kids are out. ( I have three
groups and three run times since some of my ferts will eat others.
Unfortunately, Tazzy eats everyone, therefore he comes out alone. It's
probably part of the problem with the nipping.If he had a buddy...)

The first hour is the worst for nipping, so I break out the snake
before I even open the cage.. We do our good morning loving. Tazzy
still has a million kisses every day. I hope he never runs out! then
I set him down......He starts doing his rounds, but as usual, is
watching. I have to go up the hallway to get the soup. If I time it
right, he can't catch me and get in a nip, but if I don't....I start
towards the foyer then the hall, snake in had. He bolts toward me
homing in on my toes like a first class pidgeon....I let loose the
rattlin' snake...He stopped and I twirled it around his head and
flicked it a few times. He went absolutely nuts!!!He rolled over,
grabbed it and began to bite! We played this tuggy game of mongoose
and snake all the way up the hall into the kitchen. He was bouncing
attacking biting the snake and in general, going nuts. This from a
ferret who didn't even know how to play in July when we got him, And
you could just see the joy! His little eyes flashed, He was vicious!
I may go back and get another for when this one wears out... it was
expensive as toys go, but worth it just to see Tazzy having a ball!
My son later played mongoose with him again. He was laughing quite a
bit, so I know they had a blast. Hopefully if he can get his nips out
elsewhere? That's my theory... and I'm sticking to it!! Yeah...we'll
see how that works out.....you know....ferret......they never forget
the fun, the excitement of wrapping their furry little lips (do ferrets
have lips?) around a nice tender toe, and the delightful squeak of the
receiver!!
For now.... we can divert him.....with a snake....Little fuzzy
Mongoose!!!

Cindy and the Slightly Used Gang

[Posted in FML 7357]