This is going to be a long message - teach me to leave for a long weekend!
I came home to 255 messages.  Yikes!  We went to my uncle's farm for the
weekend.  Bongo and Boomer pretty much took over his house.  But the story
is, he's got a blue heeler, Bonnie, that's a farm dog in every sense of the
word.  She lives to chase and work cattle, and when her partner, Liz, was
alive, one of their favorite hobbies was picking fights with raccoons.  So,
one would think that Bonnie wouldn't be very receptive to ferrets in the
house.  HA!  We were all in the living room watching TV, when Bonnie
wandered into the room.  She walked over to Boomer, bent over him, opened
her mouth...at which point I got a LITTLE nervous, but her tail was wagging,
so I just watched...and she picked him up in her mouth, carried him out to
her blanket in the entry, and held him down with one paw, and lay down.  She
wanted him to sleep with her!  True story, honest!  And eventually, they did
end up taking a nap together, when Boomer was darn good and ready.  Bongo
wasn't too sure about taking a nap with Bonnie, but she did ride on Bonnie's
back when her feet got too cold playing outside.  :)
 
FERT DOGGIE DOOR: I love this whole idea!  Our ferts would think they had
gone condo if we did this.  They'd wardance and dook for days.
 
SHEDDING: I was relieved to hear that ferrets shed weirdly.  (nice grammar)
Boomer's summer coat fell out in about half an hour, and his winter coat
grew in beautifully.  Half of Bongo's summer coat fell out, and stayed that
way for about two weeks.  She looked like a guinea pig.  Thankfully, her
winter fur is growing in now, and she looks like her own species.
 
TRICKS: Bongo is generally too proud to do tricks, but I did get her to
stand up and shake for a treat.  It was easy, since she would stand on her
hind legs to try and see what I had anyway, and she'd brace herself on my
hand if I held it out, so whenever she did it, I just said, "Shake", and
voila, she does it even when we DON'T say shake.  (she may be proud, but she
begs shamelessly for treats) Boomer just learned to roll over.  Again, it
was easy - he learned in about three hours.  (not three consecutive hours -
NO ferret has an attention span that long!) I held a Mouser (his favorite
treat) in front of him and brought my hand down to the floor until he was
almost lying down, and then brought the treat around the side of his head,
and then over the top of his head, so he had to roll over to get at it,
saying "roll over" while he did it, and once he went all the way over, he
got the treat.  Now if we're holding something he wants (like spaghetti
sauce) he'll scratch our legs and when he's got our attention, he'll roll
over and then pop up for his treat.  It's pretty sad when your pets start
demanding treats from you.  ("Give me 10 drops of Linatone, or your good
sock gets it.")
 
MO' BOB: First of all, I finally saw your web page, and loved it.  I give it
ten dooks.  Second, I think you should let your daughter at the computer
more often!!  ;)
 
MARSHALL FARMS: I've noticed that Marshall Farms has been getting bashed
lately, and while I'm not defending them, I did want to say that both of our
fuzzdorks came from MF, and they are extremely healthy and have great
dispositions.  Wherever they came from, I'm just thankful they're healthy
and happy!
 
Tanya, Bongo, and Boomer
 
p.s.  Just thought I'd add this - while I've been writing this, Bongo and
Boomer have been caught stealing!  Today is my birthday, and Dean, busy guy
that he is, defrosted a Sara Lee chocolate silk pie for me.  :) (he promised
me a real one when he's got time.) Anyway, I just went for a bite, and MY
PIE IS GONE!!  Those two little boogers took it under the couch.  AARGH - we
have BEIGE carpet!  Just for that, someone's going to have a bath...
[Posted in FML issue 1752]