First I would like to ask a question.  When I am awake during the day or at
night and the lights are on, my Ferret will grab a piece of food from her
dish, run a few feet (or across the room) and eat it, return to her dish,
grab another and do the same thing.  BUT, at night and I wake and the room
is dark, she will just stand at her dish and eat , without running off to
eat it, as she does in the day or when the lights are on????  What is this
all about???
 
A ferret story!!!
 
I have 4 yr.old female Ferret named Sandy.  I was told she is a Chocolate
Mit.  I believe that is the correct name.  An old neighbor of mine brought
her to my house when she was about 8 weeks old and asked me if I wanted
her.  He had only had her for a few hours before she bit his 6-month-old
baby.  He said if I didn't take her he was going to "dispose" of her.  I
fell in love with her at first sight and agreed to take her.  I don't
think I had ever even seen a Ferret prior to this, not to mention, I knew
absolutely nothing about caring for one.  But I knew I didn't like the
thought of something so cute being "disposed" of and didn't care to ask
what he meant by it.  I tried to learn as much as I could about caring for
her.  I did some reading, but mostly by trial and error, which lead to a
lot more reading.  She only lived in her cage for a month or so before I
reluctantly let her run free in my home.  The more I let her out of her
cage the less cooperative she was about returning to it.  Anyway, as time
went on and the apt. was ferret proofed, I had no regrets to letting her
run free, and neither did she.
 
On to the story.  I had many stuffed animals around my apt.  The majority
of them were 3 to 4 times the size of Sandy.  As time passed and she began
to grow, she would drag them around the house, even up the stairs to the
second floor of my apt.  This was quite comical when you consider they were
so much larger than she was.  Her and her stuffed friends would tumble down
the stairs 2 or 3 times before she would finally reach the top and drag
them under my bed.  One day I noticed every single stuffed animal was under
my bed.  We're talking about 20 or so animals.  None were to be found
anywhere else in the apt., only under the bed.  She would never bring them
out from under the bed, or at least that I knew of..  At times I would take
1 or 2 of them down stairs myself and play "fetch" with Sandy.  I would
toss it across the room and she would run after it, wrestle with it a few
times and then take off running with it, bouncing of tables, chairs,
whatever happened to be in her path.  It was hilarious!!  However, one by
one, she would drag them back up the stairs and put them back under the
bed.  I was baffled (still am) that this was the ONLY place she would allow
them to be the apt.  If her and I were not playing with them, they ALWAYS
remained under the bed.
 
I would leave for the weekend to go rafting, skiing or whatever, leaving
her free run of the house with no "adult supervision."  However, it didn't
take long for me realize I had to further ferret proof the house for those
times when I wasn't around to "supervise" her.  I returned one Sunday
afternoon from a rafting trip, walked in the front door and there was
Sandy, sitting by the front door acting as if she were happy I was home.
To my surprise, I noticed several of the stuffed animals scattered all
around the living room.  I found this odd but didn't pay much attention.
Later in the evening I noticed she had carried every one of the animals
back up the stairs and put them under the bed.  This would occur every
weekend I would be gone.  I would return to find the animals scattered
around the living as though I had come home unexpectedly and interrupted a
party she was throwing while the "adult" was away.  Each time, she would
later drag each one back up stairs and under the bed.  Whenever I would
come home and find the animals scattered around, I started picturing Sandy
and her stuffed friends, having this wild party and everything coming to an
instant halt when they would hear the truck pull into the drive way.  As
did happen when I was a teenager and my parents were away.  I guess even
Ferrets repeat the behavior of the adults in their lives.  (Ha Ha)  I have
since moved into my girlfriends apt. who also has stuffed animals lying
around.  However, Sandy has not touched a one of hers.  She only plays with
those that were brought from my apt.  I have given up trying to figure it
all out.  I just accept that fact that this is one of the many odd things
that ferrets seem to do.
 
Russ Latham & Sandy
[Posted in FML issue 3195]