When I read Bob's post on giving only enough food that your ferrets will
eat in your presence, I was reminded of the first time I was introduced to
food caching. And you know what they say about first time parents... that
you make all your mistakes with the first one. Not that this was a mistake
per say, just one of a billion learned lessons.
Vincent was our very first ferret, and named after the famous painter who
cut off his own ear. Apparently Vincent's mom decided his ear was a
midnight snack. Vincent, as we discovered, loved grapes - the green
seedless ones.
As it happened, I had prepared a large container full of them by pulling
them off the stems and washing them. I brought the container into the
living room where upon Vincent's nose picked up the scent and dashed right
over. Vincent was enthralled and ravenously bit into one after another
another and gleefully sucked them down. After about three, Vincent started
eating them away from us, and on each subsequent trip, would take the grape
further and further until we no longer saw him.
We, in the meantime, had settled in to watch a movie and lost track of our
furry raven. Time and time again, he returned, unbeknownst to us, and
snatched a grape. Eventually the container, which held about 75 grapes,
was empty. Later, when we found no grapes, we thought that we must have
been hungry as we appeared to have wolfed them down pretty fast. We did
not even consider that it could have been Vincent because ferrets only take
what they can eat, right? As I said in the beginning, we were knew to all
this ferret stuff and he was our first child.
About four days later, on one of my vacuuming travels, I discovered where
the grape had truly gone... and man, I wished I had found them sooner!
Vincent had stashed them near the heat register in a corner where they
were well on their way to the next phase in their lives.
After that, I took note of how many and where he was going....
I can still smell the wine....
Betty and Her Blur O'Fur
[Posted in FML issue 3015]
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