To some extent, it seems that the current group of ferrets I have are
less quirky then those who have gone to the bridge. Maybe it is just
that I am getting used to odd ferret behavior.
That said, Mandi and her daughter Ilsa both love to have their tummy's
tickled. In the morning, they are confined to my bedroom and bathroom,
while another crew is out in the rest of the house. They will come in
the bathroom while I am fixing my hair and such, and will roll over on to
their backs, looking up at me with a pleading look. If I fail to notice
them (which is frequently the case), they will take it one step further,
and roll themselves onto my foot. That I can't help but notice, and it
always earns them a tummy tickle.
Ilsa's daughter Toby thinks she wants to try anything that I am eating.
She is frequently out when we are eating dinner, and will come and sit up
and beg. Often, at the end of the meal, I will pick her up and let her
try things, so she can see it really isn't anything that she wants.
Last night, we had spaghetti, and so when I was through eating, I picked
her up, and got a little of the remaining tomato sauce on my finger for
her to try. She first sniffed it, and then tried licking it. Her
reaction was to wrinkle her nose, and violently shake her head, the way
ferrets often do when trying something they don't like. But, instead of
wanting down, she kept trying it over and over again, as if trying to
convince herself she did like it.
Now, when my Wolfie was alive, he had several quirks that used to keep
my husband and I laughing. One thing was that he had select toys he
considered his, and they had to be arranged in a certain way under a
chair in our bedroom. If another ferret moved them, he immediately had
to retrieve the toy and get it in the proper place. It became a game
that before I would get him out of his cage, I would take all his toys
and scatter them around the house. When he got out, the first thing he
would do is run to look under the chair, and seeing his toys were not
where they belonged, he would start looking for them and putting them
back where he felt they belonged. The whole time he was searching and
retrieving his toys, he would dook softly to himself, like he was
mumbling about how inconsiderate I was to do this to him.
Wolfie had another quirk that kept us in stitches, too. He had a unique
way of drinking water. He never lapped water out of a bowl. Instead,
he would dip his front paw in, and then lick the water off his paw. He
would also snorkel, but that was playing, not drinking. When he was in
his cage, he did not lick the water bottle, either. Instead, he would
lie down and roll over on his back under it, and knock it with his front
paw. Once his paw was wet, he would lick the water off his paw. The
ferret cages are kept in a room across the hall from our bedroom, and
many was the night he would wake us up with his unusual manner of
drinking from the water bottle.
ET, another of my kids that is now at the Bridge also had a quirk. Well,
it was actually more of an obsession. He thought anything wrapped in
plastic was his, and would grab it and hide it. We had to be very
careful with things, especially new thing we had just brought home from
the store. He would also try to take things in plastic bags, like
groceries. And, because he was able to levitate onto our kitchen table,
whee we frequently set things when we first come into the house always
be aware of things in plastic.
I remember one time my husband had picked up several new sponges at the
store, and they were all plastic wrapped. He set them down while he put
some other things away, and when he went to put them in the cupboard,
they were all missing. We then spent about a half hour looking in all
the usual hiding places to recover them
Ferrets do make our lives interesting, don't they.
--
Danee
International Ferret Congress Health Issues Coordinator
http://ferretcongress.org
ADV - If your ferret hasn't been tested, you don't know!
For more information visit: http://www.ferretadv.com
[Posted in FML issue 4855]
|
