Hello Everyone,
 
I am back on the FML after a 2 year absence.  At little bit of history...
On March 1st we lost our last baby fuzzy to Congestive Heart Failure.  At
around 9-10 years old our old man Razz's body just wore out.  We adopted
Razz and Tazz from a shelter in Oregon City, OR years ago.  Chris, the
shelter Mom, thought they were about 2 years old so he was very long lived
and one of the healthiest ferrets I've known.  We lost Tazz 2 years ago.
 
We now have a wonderful baby girl, human, who is 16 months old.  Imagine
my surprise when local shelters -- we live in Southern Oregon now -- don't
adopt to families with little children?!?  My daughter has lived her
entire young life with a ferret!  Of course as she is growing we had
to train her not to try to sit on the ferret - a fun game in her eyes,
certainly not approved by Razz!  - not to show Razz he had eyes by putting
her finger in them, a mouth by putting her finger in it, ears, nose,
etc... the usual kind of stuff we were all taught.  But she learned just
like you and I learned.  Now she tells me "soft hands mommy" when petting
the cats or our Pug dog.
 
*Note, we do need to remember that none of us as children *knew* right
out of the womb how to treat an animal kindly... it is a learned behavior.
We all tested the boundaries as children.  Generally it is our parents
standing firm with those boundaries that helped us learn to be great
people as well as loving ferret owners.*
 
This post is not to flame the shelters.  I obviously believe in adopting
from shelters as that is where our babies came from and I do understand
why they have their rules, I have nieces and nephews I wouldn't want to
own a ferret!  I am also able to understand the frustration of wanting to
provide a loving home and being denied - so far.  I believe we are a great
ferret home.  We will try to find a breeder but as a last resort we will
buy from a pet store.  The options appear to be breeder, pet store or no
ferrets.  The last is of course unacceptable so one of the first will have
to do. <grin>
 
I do have one other shelter down here I am waiting for a call back from.
Wish us luck.  My daughter, a week later, is still asking me every morning
"Momma, where Wazz?" It's hard to get those "R"s to work at 16 months!
<grin> And we are having to go through every room of the house every
morning to look for "Wazz" before she believes he is gone.
 
Hope
Ferret-less for now,
but with the love of daughter Teddie (Theodosia) and
the-best-hubbie-in-the-world Frank,
Emily & Pablo (cats) and Bucket (Pug).
[Posted in FML issue 3715]