Dear Fulvio.
 
Boy do I understand your problems.  I am from the Netherlands and I do
understand your problems very well.  Also, last saturday I was heavily
bitten by a parrot.  I have now two enormous bruises on my wrist.  I was
helping my friend at the petstore and knew that that particular parrot
didn't like me.  He grabbed me before.  I just ignored him and went on with
my bussiness.  Unfourtunantly I had to walk past the thing he was sitting
on.  Before I knew what was happening he bit me very, very hard!  I stood
there screaming and crying.  My friend, she came running and took him away
from me.  She brought him in the back out of my sight and I had a good cry.
Believe me, that hurts.  An hour or so later I had to clean a dish from one
of the animals.  I went to the back, the sink is about 3 meters from where
the parrot was sitting.  I again did nothing, he attacked me.  I hit him on
the head with the stone dish, while screaming for my friend.  Under normal
circumstances I never hit an animal, but sometimes you just have to.  I
never in my life did anything to that parrot to hurt him.  He just decided
that he did not like me and keeps on attacking me.  In the future when I am
there, he will be locked up in a cage.  Up untill now, I have not been
bitten by a ferret because of nothing.  I just got another ferret as a
friend for Timo, he is about two years old and came from an animal shelter.
He and Timo get on very well.  But apparantly he had some bad experiences
with human hands.  So he bites.  We know it and keep it in mind.
Nevertheless, yesterday, my husband was bleeding a little, no we didn't hit
him.  I think in this case is a lot of stress involved.  He will come
around.  Right now he, (we renamed him, for two reasons, one is because
with a new life comes a new name, his name has become Sharky, I don't
suppose I have to explain reason number two.) and Timo are sleeping.
Sharky's head is on Timo's tummy and Timo's head is on Sharky's tummy.
They like eachother.  So don't feel bad.  I probably would have done the
same.  And now your ferret knows he is not supposed to do that.  Give him a
big hug from me.
 
Hi Donna.
 
I am from the Netherlands and I am sorry but skylar is no Dutch word.  I
had to think for a while what you exactly meant, it was late in the
evening, but when I said the word out loud and again read the translation
I figured out what it was that you meant.  The right word is:"schuilen" if
you say that out loud it does sound like skylar.
 
Hi Jena.
 
Please don't let them declaw!  I saw it once on T.V.  happening on a
kitten.  Believe me it was horroble.  There are so many other things that
you can do.  If those are not possible for you, maybe you should consider
adoption by another ferret lover.  It is not fair to your ferret that he
should be in pain.  You could have known that before you took the ferret
in.  I hope you make a wise decision.
 
Well now for a story with a happy ending.  Yesterday we got Timo a friend.
It is a 2 year old ferret, is in harlequin colors, male and we renamed him
Sharky.  What I really wanted, was to have a girlfriend for Timo, but
trough circumstances, I cannot get one this year.  I didn't want Timo to be
alone and so I heard of this ferret in the shelter.  We went there and took
Timo with us to see if he was willing to play with other ferrets.  Sharky
had already been placed with a family, but their ferret kept on attacking
him.  He was brought back.  By now the animal is pretty stressed.  I didn't
want him to live trough that again, so we took Timo, who is used to driving
by car and likes it, with us to see what he would do.  All he ever played
with were his brothers.  Well we got there and received a friendly welcome.
We let Timo walk around and then Astrid released a couple of young ferrets.
Not Sharky.  Timo really loved to play with all those ferrets.  I think he
had the time of his life.  Gradualy we locked the little ones back in their
cages and when they were all gone out came Sharky.  He looks very cute, he
has 4 white paws and a white spot in his neck.  The rest of him is mixed
sand, brown and white.  At first they didn't see each other.  So we picked
one and put him next to the other.  They sniffed and all humans where
sitting there with their fingers crossed and toes curled with tension.
They started to play!  We dedided to take Sharky home.  We were warned that
it might very well be possible that they could have problems with living
together.  Well, they decided not to.  Right now they are asleep hugged
together.  Sharky is really cute.  He only tends to bite our hands.  I
think we can teach him hands are nice things to play with.  Well, that's
all for now.  I am sorry, it's a long mail again.  And then to think I did
skip.  Love to all the ferrets out there.
 
Ellie.
Timo (he is nice and soft mom)
Sharky (I do like you, just not the hands)
[Posted in FML issue 2462]