I smiled when I read Mary Jo's warning to Todd not to wait too long.  I
did, and now I have a ferret so originally named, Baby.  Since someone
recently asked about how other ferrets got their names, I'm going to
babble my story.
 
When I was preparing to get my first ferret everyone kept asking me what
I would name her.  I insisted I wouldn't know until I had her.  Well, my
Mom went shopping with me one day for cage and accessories and kept
bugging me about the name.  When I finally got annoyed (imagine getting
annoyed while spending a day shopping with a Mom (-: ) she explained that
she didn't want to keep referring to my future, nonexistent as of yet,
ferret as "it".  So I told her to just refer to her as "my baby" since
that's what she'd be.  Well that night while falling asleep I thought
that maybe I better start getting some name ideas in my head.  For some
reason I was stuck on M, but was coming up with only names I'd heard
before: Misha, Mica, then suddenly Mikette (mi ket) popped into my head.
Then I realized that it kind of meant "my baby ferret" (mi for my and ket
for kit) which is what I had told my mom to call her.  Well, I decided
that I loved it, but would wait til I had her to be sure it fit her.
 
Not long after that day I finally picked out a sweet little kit (this
was pre-computer and shelter awareness for me) and brought her home.  I
wasn't decided on the name yet, but just after she woke up in her new
home she decided to get busy with her kit job - biting me!  New to
ferrethood all I could do was quickly and repeatedly reprimand her "NO
Mikette!"  I had no choice, I had to call her something quick!  But I
love that name for her and what it means to me (only downside is that
some people think I'm saying "my cat").
 
Well, a year later I got a second ferret.  I had been doing the debate
and wanted a ferret buddy for Mikette.  I saw a tiny ferret while
shopping for supplies (still precomputer) and just needed to get her.
I didn't have a second cage (for intro's) set up or my carrier with me,
so I came back the next day.  The next day they wouldn't sell her.  Said
she was sick and were "watching" her and the others.  I was worried about
this tiny baby not going to a vet and just being watched.  But they
wouldn't sell her, wouldn't hold her for me, and wouldn't transfer her to
another petco where a ferret friend worked and would nurse her.  Well it
was a long battle but finally they put her out back for care and held her
for me til they would sell her.  Two weeks later I got my little baby.  I
took her home and decided she needed a name to reflect the long battle to
make her mine.  I thought of Kerita (Kind of meaning "little wanted one"
as in querer for want) or Pelita (for little fight, pelar).  In the
meantime I called her Baby.  I finally settled on Kerita, but called her
Baby Kerita because we were all used to it.  Well Baby is all that stuck.
She is now and will always be Baby.  But it really fits!  She is big but
completely baby like!
 
My third ferret Jillie was from the wonderful Gimmee Shelter and luckily
she came with a name.  She was named after the woman Jill who helped to
rescue her, and of course I wouldn't have changed that!
 
Dooks!
Risa
[Posted in FML issue 4175]