I've been thinking about this the past couple days and decided to share.
Either people will relate, or they will say, "Jeez, they're worse than us!"
or they'll say, "HA!  I'm so far beyond that, it'll take them a year to
catch me!"
 
            Things That Told Us We Are Owned By Our Ferrets
                   by Julie Dowdy and Phil Eisermann
 
 1. We spend more a year in ferret health care than human health care.
        factoid: I believe last year it was close to $3000.
 
 2. I bought them a stepping stool so they could get in the bath tub
    easier.
 
 3. I started buying ferret art.
        factoid: wonderful print of ferrets in the kitchen!
 
 4. At work, people fully understand that they are asking about a
    species other than human when they say, "How are your babies?"
 
 5. Phil, a native born German and therefore a fanatic about beer,
    starts brewing specific beers after the personality of our
    ferrets.
        factoid: he brewed the best one yet in memory of our Bailey,
        and calls it The Immortal Bailey Beer.  I believe it's a pale
        ale, but I'm Beer Ignorant, so don't quote me.
 
 6. We are reluctant to spend the night anywhere, such as going to a
    friend's house over an hour away, because we don't want to leave
    the babies unsupervised.
 
 7. Linda's comment: "You guys use the good blankets to cover their
    cages!"
 
 8. Not wearing my winter coat in freezing, nasty winter weather
    because I left it on the floor and Bailey was asleep in the arm.
 
 9. When a t-shirt, no matter how Human Favorite it is, becomes a
    Ferret Property shirt because we left it on the floor and they
    moved in.
 
 10. The bottom dresser drawer is for them, while my clothes sit on
     the floor in the closet.
 
 11. Going to work late, coming home from work early, or calling off
     of work beause one of them is sick.
 
 12. Both sets of my parents now call them The Grand-weasels, and send
     them Christmas presents.
 
 13. My first quilt project: little quilts for the bottom of the
     cages.
 
 14. The realization that we would not pay $60 for a human book, but
     paid it without blinking when it was a ferret health book.
 
 15. Phil bought a water purifying system. Not for us, but for the
     ferrets.  (Comes in handy for us and the saltwater tank, too)
 
 16. Putting stuff the ferrets like to eat on our grocery list.
 
 17. Picking them up anyway when they do Pick Me Up to get onto a
     surface where you know darn well they are going to knock every
     single object off on.
        factoid: *thud*  "There goes the hairdryer again."
 
 18. Choosing not to have a perfectly decorated, perfectly groomed
     house, well, because we have potty pans in the corners, the inside
     of the couch is duct taped, there's a wooden barrier by the back
     door, water jugs in the kitchen to keep them from opening the doors,
     plastic runners taped to the carpet upstairs to prevent Let Me In
     Digging.  One of these days I'll have a nice house.
     For now: Ferrets Live Here.
 
 19. We decorate with cans of Spot Shot.
 
 20. I was the lucky winner of my step-dad's You Get The Big Xmas
     Present This Year: what was it? A HUGE Stone Critters ferret.
 
I'm sure there's more proof, but I think these are embarrassing enough.  8)
 
Have a good day.
[Posted in FML issue 2973]