My name is Keitha Pearce and I am a Help Desk/Computer Technician in
Amarillo, Texas.  I am relatively new to the ferret world as my family only
started in February 1997, but I love my fuzzies more than anything and my
fiance and I have tries to learn all that we can about them from books,
internet, the FML, and our vet.
 
We have four ferrets, Smith & Wesson, Beretta, and Sugar.  My fiance, Ramon,
is a law enforcement officer and named three of them after his firearms,
What can I say?  Sugar was christened after my cyber-persona.  They are all
fixed and descented Marshall Farm ferrets.
 
Smith is a Black Sable male, 1 yr-old, @ 3 1/2 lbs., and loves Ramon more
than anything, pouts alot, and is the Alpha male.  He tried to be a mother
to the two female kits when we got them by dragging them around and forcing
them to eat and go to bed.
 
Wesson is a Butterscotch Siamese male, 11 mo. old, @ 3 lbs., loves raisens
and shoe insoles (he doesn't eat them, just shreds them), and is the most
intelligent of the bunch.  He opens zippers, doors, and nothing is beyond
his reach if you give him enough time to figure it out.  He also seems to
suffer from allergies, and has a problem with biting men, mainly Ramon whom
I think Wesson is jealous of because he's a Momma's boy.  He also likes the
new PC game, Riven.
 
Beretta is an Albino female, 7mo.old, @ 1 3/4 lbs, and is the sweetheart who
loves everybody.  She is not quite as sharp as the others (I don't know if
this a tendency of albinos or just part of her personality), but she is by
far the most affectionate.  She loves Star Wars (the new releases) and
Mountain Dew.  She was a sickly kit.  The vet said she was weened too early
(we determined this when she tried to nurse anything resembling a nipple and
she was not a healthy size for a kit) and she was only about 5 weeks old
when we got her.  We had to teach her how to eat solid food, but now she is
a little pudge.
 
Sugar is a Pewter Silver Mitt female, 8 mo. old, @ 1 lb., very dainty, and
loves craisens (Like raisens but made from cranberries) and adores her teddy
bear.  She is smallest of the ferrets, possibly because at 10 weeks of age
she found an Ibuprofen tablet that someone dropped and ate it.  She was a
sick little fuzzy for a couple of weeks and had to take Tagament HB to calm
her stomache.  I'm afraid her growth might have been stunted, but she is
very healthy and active now.
 
From time to time, we critter-sit a fifth ferret Rascal who is 2 1/2 yrs old
and belongs to my cousin.  He is a Sable Male and weighs about 5 1/2 lbs.
 
This is my family and I wouldn't trade them for all the world.  However, we
would like to get a white ferret (not albino, but white with dark eyes), but
we haven't been able to find one in our area.  There are no shelters here
and the one pet store in town that had ferrets was closed because of
inadequate care of the animals.  If anyone knows where we might get one,
please let me know.
[Posted in FML issue 2150]