Hidley ho ferret lovers,
 
I had a warm fuzzy moment a few minutes ago and felt compelled to share...
 
A knock on the door.  I lean over my kitchen barrier and round the corner
to open the front door.  There is a boy, about 10, with his mum (mom)
collecting for the IHC (Intellectually Handicapped Children) appeal.  I
amble over the barrier and mention that the barrier is because I have pets
running around (though non were visible or audible at the time).  You
could have bowled me over with a feather when the boy said "Do you have
ferrets?".  I said "Yes.  How did you know?" To which he just replied "My
friend has ferrets".  Well I motioned to the boy and his mum to come up to
the barrier and then I impressed them by whistling and having four ferrets
come scampering to my call (3 of mine and 1 very fast learner that I am
fostering).  So we end up talking ferret for some minutes and I let Grover,
my ambassador ferret be held and petted and Thor my albino be petted while
I held the biting end!  I did the same with Lady Penelope and the mum said
"What's this guys name?" to which the boy replied, "That's a female".  He
was right and I was impressed!  (here in NZ females generally have longer
pointier noses).  Then he comes out with "Do you know Fergus?" Fergus was a
ferret advertised recently by the SPCA and lo and behold it turns out that
this boys friend adopted him.  I mentioned that two of my ferrets were SPCA
rescues and the boys mum asked if the SPCA inspected my property /
interviewed me as rigorously as the friend had been!  I had to smile and
explain that Hans who handles the ferret rescues at the SPCA is a ferret
owner himself and is *very* particular about where the rescue ferrets go.
Well the encounter ended with the mother thanking me and apologising for
taking up so much of my time, to which I replied "No problem, I can talk
about my ferrets forever", which is absolutely true <grin>.
 
Well an hour later and I'm still feeling really neat about this chance
encounter.  As you may recall from some of my previous posts, ferrets
aren't that common a pet here in New Zealand, most people here have a
negative mindset about ferrets (because of the feral ferrets here) and
there are moves afoot to try to have them banned as pets.  It's nice to
know that there are a few educated people out there.
 
Regards,
-David, Thor, Grover, Lady Penelope and the foster ferret Snuff.
[Posted in FML issue 2967]