I love reading all the stories of people's first experiences with ferrets.
When I was growing up my parents were not terribly fond of animals, and so
I was forced to work my way up through the food chain, starting with pet
brine shrimp, hermit crabs, crickets, chameleons, and finally mice (oooh...
mammals).  At last it came to the point where I was begging my parents for
a dog.  I did all sorts of research on what type of dog to get, but my
parents were still dubious.  Then one day, my parents came home from a fair
and announced that they had found the perfect pet for me.  Yup, you guessed
it... one of the fairgoers had been sitting out on the lawn with his ferret
and had somehow managed to convince my parents of the superiority of this
little animal.  I immediately headed for the dictionary to try to figure
out what this creature was that had my parents so excited.  I suppose
that my first ferret sighting was the little ferret drawing next to the
dictionary entry.  After two unfortunate attempts to adopt a ferret from a
shelter, we ended up getting a little baby girl from a private breeder.  We
named her Ellie.  The first time I picked her up she climbed up on top of
my head and tangled herself up in my hair.  One of her earliest tricks was
walking around under an overturned plastic basin.  It was hysterical to
watch a plastic basin scooting across the floor of its own accord!  Ellie
was crazy about bananas and would come racing when she heard her banana
dish clink on the kitchen floor.  She was exceptionally gentle except when
it came to nibbling on my toes under the blankets.  We had her for almost
eight years.  After a two-year break from weasels I decided that I couldn't
stand it any longer and got the two guys I have now.
 
Why do I choose ferrets in just one sentence?  Impossible!!  It would take
a whole book to describe my addiction to them.  But how about this for a
starter... "Because they add a healthy dose of chaos to my life."
 
Hugs to all the sleeping fur doughnuts,
 Julie
[Posted in FML issue 2927]