Helloooooo. Melissa the poor here,
 
Well, I've been doing the routine as usual - get up in the morning, shower,
get the ferrets' foods and meds ready and spend the rest of pre-work time
taking care of them.  Honestly, I spend 15 minutes on me and an hour on
them.  Friday gets her goop, Noodle needs to be convinced to take amoxi and
flagyl plus getting goop of his own to put some weight back on him, then
Easel needs to be mollified and time spent with her so as to convince her
that she's special TOO, even though she doesn't get goop.
 
Well, if you've been following Noodle's little health saga (I know you have -
thrills, chills, excitement, flagyl and baytril all over my work clothes -
most of you are cackling, albeit sympathetically) you'll know that Noodle's
still mostly grumpy and lethargic, but better.  Well, today, he PLAYED with
me.  First time I've seen him leap into play in WEEKS.  I was coming out of
a corner with a handful of poop-laden newspaper, and I accidentally kicked
him (lightly, of course, because no matter how much time you spend staring
at the floor there will be those times that a ferret DASHES out from under
something and stubbornly puts itself in the path of your foot.  so, like me,
probably like all of you, you learn to both look down AND walk very lightly.
I picture 3,000 ferret owners mincing delicately around their ferrets' rooms
every day).  Anyway, if you remember the thread of the story, I kicked
Noodle lightly - enough to spin him slightly to the side - and he war danced
at me!  Then dashed under the futon, then chased me around the room for a
while.  And after I forced him to take his meds, he war danced more!  It was
great.  After a few moments of playing with him and the towel, I threw Easel
(who's been neglected these past few months, as Friday's not really in a
playful mood and Noodle's been sick - she spends more time playing by
herself than any other ferret I've seen that has other ferrets to play with)
on top of Noodle and that got them going.  Easel joyfully attacked Noodle
and Noodle gleefully tried to ignore her and chase me instead.  Yay!
 
In other news, Potpie is finally losing winter weight - freaky off-season
ferret that she is, she puts it all back on in JANUARY.  We took Easel out
to play in the grass and she freaked out the neighbor's cat, who was like
"AGH!  Abomination of nature!" and hasn't talked to me since (he's a very
friendly cat).  Oh, and Friday spent all morning trying to nip my ankles.
Ingrate.
 
Melissa (the girl with parentheses)
 
 ___ Melissa Litwicki __ [log in to unmask] ___
 By the whole newsgroup devoted tennis showing
     it after scarfing fork and laughters
[Posted in FML issue 2013]