Hi everyone.
 
It's just about to the point that I'm sick of reading about how terrible
Marshall Farms ferrets are and how no one should buy one and everyone should
adopt, blah, blah, blah.  Until now, the only two ferrets that I've had were
older when I got them.  One of which, I could certainly call a rescue,
because of the way she was being raised, but is now the sweetest ferret
anywhere.
 
Well, we just got our third ferret from an ad in the paper.  The owner's
fiance turned out to be allergic to her (but not to cats; there's a new one
on me).  We got a 10 week old albino female, cage, bird toys, and food for
$85.  Her previous parents had no experience with ferrets, so were going
about things the wrong way: no litter box, food bowl, wood shavings.  They
certainly did love her, though and wanted her to have a good home.
 
I thought that it would be quite a chore to get her trained, but it's
turning out to be easier than I *ever* imagined.  We bought a corner litter
box and filled the bottom of her cage with a blanket.  She immediately
started using the litterbox and aside from digging all of the litter out
once, has had only minor one accident.  It took WEEKS and WEEKS to get
either of my other two to that point!
 
We decided to name her Storm, since she is always running around like a
whirlwind and it looks like lightning is about to strike her tail from all
the hair standing on end.  She was prone to lunge at your face and bite, but
she is all but broken of that with the help of Bitter Apple.  It's amazing
how quickly she learned the difference between acceptable nibbles and
naughty bites.
 
Now for the unbelievable....
 
When I returned home the first night, she was actually laying asleep beside
my wife on the couch.  Storm doesn't mind being held until she calms down
and even falls asleep in your arms.  It took literally years before either
of our other two would allow you to do that.  Rockford and Storm aren't cage
buddies yet, but that's certainly progressing fairly well considering that
Rockford is a full five years older than Storm.  We assume it's because
Storm is such a ball of energy.  Rockford had no trouble sleeping with a
friend's Weezy the first night they were together, but Weezy is also older
and out of the "puppy" phase that Storm has barely begun.
 
Storm has certainly progressed further and faster along the "long trail of
learning how to behave" than either of our two previous fuzzies.  We feel
it's because she doesn't have years of learned behavior to un-learn.  It's
apparently much easier to start with a clean slate.  Granted, we are much
more prepared as parents now, but we're not doing things *that* differently
than with the other guys.
 
All of our ferrets have been Marshall Farms produced.  Fosgate lived to the
ripe old age of 8 and Rockford is doing quite well at 5.  It will be
interesting to see how well Storm does, since she's going to have a lifetime
of Totally Ferret behind her.  I'm starting to think that the Energizer
Bunny should have been the Energizer Ferret...she just won't quit.  Anyway,
it's certainly been nice to have all that energy around the house again.
Rockford seems to have picked some of it up, since she doesn't get tired as
quickly when she's out playing by herself.
 
Marshall Farms will always sell ferrets because petstores will always buy
ferrets from them because people will always buy ferrets at petstores.  It's
impossible to get the word out to everyone who buys from a petstore because
most people don't sit down and say "I think we need a ferret in our lives.
Let's fully investigate the facts and see if they're the right pet for us,
and if so, find a good local breeder to buy one."
 
Most people will go into a petstore, play with them, fall in love, and say
"Oh, I've *got* to have one!"....I sure did!  Education is the key!  Sure, I
meant to buy a female from a breeder, get her fixed at the right time, etc.,
but when your heart tells you that it's right, what can you do?
 
Jason, Allison, Rockford, and now....Storm!
[Posted in FML issue 1772]