As some of you may know, I live in a very rural mountainous area.  The
closest and ONLY store is about 1/4 mile away, after that it's 8 miles to
the closest place that (vaguely) resembles civilization.  TRUE civilization
is a 40 mile drive west of here.
 
The store close by is a gas station/food/fishing supply/movie rental all
rolled into one sort of place, owned and run by a local family:
grandparents (who don't look their age at all!!!) daughter and
(occasionally) very cute 4yo granddaughter.
 
I've gotten into the habit of taking one or more of my ferrets up to this
local store, in a carry-sack, both to get them used to other people and to
get the locals used to the idea that a) ferrets are not wild animals b)
they belong to ME (should one ever get loose, perish the thought) and c)
they are terribly cute.
 
The fuzzies have become very popular and if I ever go in there without one,
I always get asked how they are doing, etc. :-)  (2 days ago Tinka pulled
another great trick by climbing up on top of my US Robotics baseball cap
and riding around on the top of my head while I shopped around... it was
too dang funny!)
 
Anyway, today I went in there, again (by chance) with Tinka, and lo and
behold, there was a *TOUR BUS* stopped there!  We have a Bald Eagle
Festival that runs late Dec-Feb 'cos they winter over in this river valley
and all sorts of folks come up to check them out, and this bus was a bunch
of river rafters.  Anyway, I got to talking with some of them, and someone
spied Satinka thru the mesh of her carrysack and said "Is that a
ferret?!?!?!" and seconds later I was literally surrounded by people who
all wanted to see and touch the ferret!
 
Satinka's barely 8 weeks old, but thank goodness she is learning her
manners, she kissed a few fingers and didn't bite or nibble ANYONE and
showed remarkable patience with letting everyone pet her.  (I held her in
two hands, mostly tried to keep her face away from fingers and let them
stroke her back.  She's still got a very pluffy kit/winter coat so she's
very soft and cute.  One person who said he'd had ferrets before, I allowed
him to hold her.)
 
Then she showed everyone how she gives her Mommy lots of ferret-kisses on
the lips!!  (Much to the amusement of all onlookers, except one young girl
who was admittedly afraid of animals but did venture to touch her back with
one finger.)
 
It was all extremely cool and fun, and I even got an offer for a
free river-rafting trip from the guy who runs the rafting trip! Cewl.
 
Interestingly, the general reception out here in the "boonies" of
my ferrets has been very positive. A lot of the loggers and
fishermen will reach right out and pet my kids and talk about how
they knew a ferret once, or ask me about their hunting ability,
etc.
 
Anyway...just had to share. Many hugs to all of you out there.
 
Megan
[Posted in FML issue 2559]