I too (well my boys and me) have been picked. Last year I housed quite
a few surrenders/fosters for our local shelter during the course of
the year (20 or so). The census was way up at the shelter and vet
appointments sometimes took awhile for the Shelter Mom to get. One
surrender I picked up brought us the H1N1 flu. I had 4 surrenders at
the time in addtion to my 2 boys. We all got it (Even me). Rather than
risk a flu outbreak at the shelter I kept the 4 surrenders for a time
before bringing them in. There was a group of 3 ferrets 2 were a bonded
4yo male, female pair and one was a 2yo male and a single 6mo female.

Earlier in the year I had lost my heart ferret who had multiple neural
tube defects and was deaf. I had put a big wall up in my mind to never
own one again because they could never be my Clyde. We had housed
several over the year as well. Well the 2yo of the group was a neural
tube/deaf little guy with multiple issues physically (White, small,
tiny tail, deaf, chewing problems, short bowed legs, blue eyes,
mentally slower, and an old injury that had atrophied his whole back
right end). The Shelter Mom told me straight up he would most likely
be a permenant resident, so he had a great home at the shelter lined
up. Perfect.

When we all were suffering from the flu I made the decision to combine
the run times on the surrenders with my boys to ease my life and so I
could monitor and nurse them all at once. I actually made a point of
having my husband handle the little 2yo so he could not bond with
me - (And I with him). In about a week the little deaf boy decided to
start following me everywhere I went. He would just walk up to me and
stare at me and put his little foot on mine. Then on the 7th day or so
he moved into my boys' cage on his own. Until then he would retire with
his little group. It was like he packed his little hobo bindle and said
"So long Suckers!" to his brother and sister and moved in. He started
to go to bed really early for his group and would go curl up in my guys
cage. He got moved back into his siblings cage and would sit there
awake staring at me with the most indignant expression on his face when
I did that. Then he started going to bed earlier to solidify his spot
in the the boys' cage (we were well past the flu at this point so...).

My guys had fosters live with them before. They are 2 very active
bachelors that overwhelm most every ferret and drive the fosters nuts.
They are best buds and never could be found without the other. Well the
little white guy just started to insert himself in their little groove,
and instead of driving him out or overwhelming him they just went.
"Meh. He's cool." The little white guy stuck his tounge out at me at
that point and gave me a huge "Thhhpppbbbbttt! I've decided. I'm
staying." He never wavered in the confidence of his decision. He was
overjoyed when his brother and sister went to the shelter and now
resides happily with us (I got in a lot of trouble with the husband
on this one).

So since he is a little slow we called him Simple Simon, because Simon
Sez.

Kristy
Mr Garrison & Mr Twig and tagging along Simple Simon
Missing Tweek, Clyde, & Arte

[Posted in FML 6668]