Dear Ferret Folk,

To my sadness I missed the Symposium in person this year. I did however
get to submit a video for 'Funniest Ferret'. Now that some of you have
gotten to see Navar, I would like to share his story.

Navar was a Rescue/surrender. A person I work with heard I had ferrets
and asked me if I wanted this boy. She told me the ferret was mean and
stunk really bad. Knowing what the ferret would face without someone
that understands them, I drove to her house after work. When we
arrived, she told us he had bitten her husband ( drew blood ) and they
were all really scared of him since. He was housed outside. Keep in
mind it was all ready well into the 90's in the day here at this time.
She said they were feeding him wet cat food once a day, he wasn't aloud
out of the cage. He stunk to much. I played nice and spoke with her
while my son (with our Pet Taxi) fallowed her kids out back to get him.
When they came back I saw this big, yellow crazy boy tearing away at
the bars. The kids couldn't believe my son just picked him up and put
him in the taxi. I told them we better go as I was afraid he was going
to break a tooth on the bars. They wished us well because they were
sure he was going to rip us up.

We got home and I placed the new boy in my sons room. I told him he was
going to have this stinky little guy for a room mate. I explained to my
son about protecting our ferrets from a new guy. We left him to the new
room and his new food and water. Don't you know, he Guzzled the water.
I let the guy get a sense for this new place. Later I shot the couple
pictures and tried to put him in the new cage. Well yes, I got a good
nip for reaching into the nice hide spot he had found himself. ( my
fault )

Navar didn't sleep on his new hammies for a couple days. I don't think
he knew how. He took to our food right away. As well as Soup! What a
blessing!! So the next few days I worked on trust and good things like
food, water, treats, toys. You know, I didn't receive another bite!!
And yes, the boy was intact! No wonder he smelled....LOL!!

I really wanted him to get a few good weeks of care under his belt
before any surgery, even neutering. But as fate would have it, the new
loving care Navar was receiving caused him to blow that nasty yellow
coat. And when I say blow, I mean BLOW! It was over a few short days
total that he just changed before our eyes. Though I gave him lax, I
guess not enough. Navar got a hair ball.

I hadn't had him but a couple weeks. I came home from work to find
projectile vomit everywhere. We ran to the vet for a barium. And there
it was. I knew even though he could have chewed anything, it was going
to be hair. He went into emergency surgery that night.

Thank God it was summer vacation. Since I had to work, I left Navar in
the care of my Son. After all he had been there since we got him. Eric
did a WONDERFUL job. Fallowed every instruction I left him with. Hand
feed him soup, cleaned his cage. Just plain loved him.

It was 3 days later that Navar was flipping out in the sick cage. He
was really upset about being locked up. I imagine the time in the tiny
2 by 2 rabbit cage outside would do that! He was bouncing and tearing
at the cage so bad I was afraid he would hurt himself. So I let him
out. This is when he found my son dresser drawer. And thanks to a handy
digital camera, the video came to be.

Navar and Eric are still best buddies. My son's loving care left a mark
on Navar's little heart, and so is true wth my son!.It can be seen in
the pictures. Navar doesn't even look the same. He is a pretty solid
sable now. A beautiful mask. I just consider us lucky to have been
blessed with him. The best spontaneous choice I ever made.

A slide show showing a time line from when we got him to now can be
seen here. What a difference!
<http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v198/Ladyhawk12/Navar/?action=view&current=8276aa60.pbw&t=1226454939>>

Thanks for letting us share. Hope you enjoyed him in that video as much
as we have.

Dooks,
Kris~ AKA: Ladyhawk

[Posted in FML 6152]