Take one very small wading pool..add one young childs 'whale' slide [easily
fits inside pool and has three very small steps up to a 'top' about 22
inches from the base and has a fairly short easy curving slide down] add
sticky backed rough appliques like you use in a bath tub to prevent slips to
the steps... now fill pool with light tennis ball sized colored plastic
balls..some areas have them in game supply houses for the childrens
inflatable party house fun houses..  lots of them pretty cheap...or as in my
case a Mac Donalds with a very big hole in the net outside their fun house
set up...just hang out on the weeekend and as they roll down the driveway
and kerb you gather them up by the sack full.  Now get the fuzzys and give
tiny bits of treat until every body is paying attention..then put them on
the top of the slide and let a treat slide down to vanish into the pool of
balls and just watch the slide go into action..they soon learn to rapidly
climb back up to wait for another goodie..after a time or two of this they
run to the top and wait..so you just toss the treat anywhere in the pool and
watch the crew hit the slide and then the ferret submarines start hunting
among the balls for the treat they know is there somewhere..the balls look
like a shark attack in progress and the fuzzys go nuts looking on the
bottom..when its found they tear back up and try to guess where it went this
time [fake them out they love it] and down they go for another hunt and find
melee under the balls..  if you use bits of their food with a trace of
ferretone you get them going forever and they get good nutrition into the
bargain..or there is the ever favorite, and harder to find, raisin... the
pool was 6 dollars at the K-mart parking lot sale..the slide was 14 at the
same sale..an thanks to that hole in the net and a little patience the balls
were free..but another fella set his up and got about 110 balls for 7
dollars at a big games supply house..took a couple of calls and that did
it..  His 8 ferret felons play this game with him until they
drop...sunshine, fresh air and typical fun crazy fuzzys..my idea of a great
good time..  none better!
 
This is the same great sweetheart of a man who called me frantic when his
first kit had played itself and him to exhaustion one afternoon and when he
woke up from his little nap he found his much loved little play partner
lifeless in his lap...he shook him...he wiggled him, he lightly slapped his
little bod, nothing!!  He called me in a panic..he was pretty sure the
little guy wasn't even breathing, he was totally limp, 'What had he
done?'...I told him to calm down..lay the kit tummy side up on his lap..was
it breathing?..yeeeeesss he thought so..OK!  now put your thumb on one side
of his chest and forefinger on the other side and firmly using your
nails...ready?...OK, now tickle the ribs on that fuzzy...'Excuse Me??  was
the startled reply...just do it..tickle that fuzzy!...a couple of seconds
later there was a relieved glad cry and sounds of one very happy, and
tearful Daddy and one quite puzzled fuzzy having a love fest... I just hung
up and giggled for a while..the phone rang again and a sheepish voice asked
how I knew..  I explained a kit can sleep deeper than any living thing not
in full hibernation..and scare us nearly to death..but when all else fails
fuzzys are notoriously ticklish and I had been thru the same thing a couple
of times too ....and the tickling was the only way to get that
passed-out-cold kit to respond..  And to this day they still scare me and
still wake up quick to tickling and we still have tickle mock-fights a
lot... But they sure can scare the wits out of a human..I can testify to
that!!  OH, Yeah!!
 
 TTYS  dayna  :]
 dayna frazier   102046,3162
[Posted in FML issue 1589]