I've noticed that ferrets love very large, gross motor kinds of
movements. Put bluntly, they like it rough. They do! A ferret prefers
a deep, massaging type of petting, rubbing or scritching most of the
time. We used to handle our ferrets rather delicately. Little kisses,
light strokes, and no roughness. Then a pet store owner picked one up
in front of me one day and said, "That's not how you love em!" He then
folded the ferret in half so that the ferrets' butt was in the palm of
his hand and the ferret was sitting and bending over with it's head
between it's back legs looking at me. Then he dropped his big paw on
him and gave him big squishy rubs. "That's how you love you a ferret".

I was horrified. But slowly ... I saw he was right about them. They
like their loves big and squishy, not light and delicate. Then I read
about ferret bowling on the FML. It seemed so ... barbaric. But I gave
it a try. My ferret would slide across the linoleum and at the end of
the "ride" her legs would go a mile a minute until they'd grip the
floor and she'd get up, spin in circles, dook and dance and then ...
come back for more. And more. And more. If you bowl your ferret "into"
other ferrets (pins), they all jump and twist into the air and join
the fun.

Last year, I saw what I thought was rough play on one of the SuperTonks
videos with him "flying". It looked like his little brains were going
to be scrambled. But then other owners laughed at me and said, "Pfft,
what is WRONG with you? That is not rough". ST's owner pointed out that
some owners are much rougher than she, and how much he loved to be
flown around, manipulated and danced all over the place like a puppet.
Do you know how she knows? Because he turns into a wet dish towel when
she does it. His eyes even relax like he's going to nap! Watch the
video and you'll see. Also when you put him on the floor, the key thing
is that he comes back for more. So, then I took my ferrets and pretty
soon I was running through the living room with them making airplane
noises. I was making them dance with my hands. And I too noticed that
as soon as I'd make large movements, my ferrets would relax and melt
into my hands. I said, "Son of a gun, they really do like it," to
myself. I also noticed that when I put them down afterwards, they'd
wardance and jump on me for more. When I saw the sheet toss on TV,
sure, I felt my nose wrinkle up a bit with worry. I questioned it.
Then I saw how safely they were doing it. And I saw the ferrets face
looked relaxed through much of it.

So, I'm not judging. I'm willing to be my life that when they stop,
that ferret voluntarily jumps back on the sheet for more. Everyone
relates to their pets in different ways and everyone's ferrets like
different things. It's like anything else, I mean some things are for
me and some things aren't.

[Posted in FML 5680]