Hi, everyone,
 
A year ago today I walked into a local pet store because the one I usually
go to (which does not sell animals) was out of stock on something (I forget
what) that I needed for our business.  That store had always sold Marshall
Farms kits, and had always done a good job of taking care of them.  This
one time they had gotten a kit from somewhere else, and I had never seen
one so small.
 
I picked up this precious but incredibly tiny and thin five week old.  She
was awake, but not active at all.  She was nippy, and began crying almost
immediately, and wouldn't stop.  I looked at the food in the cage and saw
what they always feed their kits: KayTee FortiDiet kibble.  Hard food for a
baby who was too young to have her canines in.  She had an absolutely full
food bowl and was crying and nipping because she was starving to death.  I
tried to talk to the very young women who were working there, and they
couldn't and wouldn't help me until the manager came back on Monday.  It
was Saturday, and I felt reasonably sure that they'd have a dead ferret on
Monday, or at least one who had really suffered.  I bought the kit and took
her home.
 
I made a mush from Totally Ferret, KayTee FortiDiet, some Ferretvite, and
warm water.  When she had this in front of her she finally stopped crying
and started eating.  Keith says she ate for practically two days straight,
each time until her belly was good and round.
 
Romana is still here.  She is a beautiful, active, healthy, very bright,
and a downright aggressive little girl, who weighs in at perhaps a little
under a pound, and she is *not* thin.  The local ferret shelter owner
described her as a "dwarf ferret".  I've heard of littler, but she is the
smallest adult ferret I have personally seen.  I have to wonder if that
time without proper food at such a tender age stunted her physical
development.  Maybe, and maybe she was just always destined to be tiny.
I suppose we'll never know.
 
Romana is an absolute joy, and a model spokesferret.  She has a wonderful
personality with people.  When we broached the idea of moving in with eight
ferrets to the office here (we rent a townhouse), who do you think we
brought?  OK, I showed them our largest ferret next, but she was the one
who won their hearts.  Still, today, on this anniversary of her arrival in
our home, I have to wonder about the other Romanas out there.  I wonder how
many kits end up harmed or perhaps even dead because they are not properly
cared for.  If someone had bought her on an impulse, with no idea of how to
feed an extremely young kit, what would have become of her?  They kids in
the pet store wouldn't have known what to tell such a buyer.  It's a sad
and scary thought, isn't it?
 
I think our little Romana gets a special treat tonight :)
 
Take care,
Caity
 
(mine: Adric, Kerr Avon, Nyssa, Pertwee, and, of course, Romana)
(his:  Tenchi, Ryo-Ohki, and Lady Ayeka)
[Posted in FML issue 2852]