A ferret will 'talk ' to you in many different ways if only you can
learn how and what they have to say. If something is not right, they
will tell you in some way.

Jeep's cage was long overdue for a full cleaning. Was a warm day,
in fact another record day here so I took the cage outside for that
cleaning. Jeep had turned all that kibble into piles of doo doo, a good
bucket full that I had not readily seen. This guy is a mess ! Some
ferrets are very clean and astute about their habits but some are not
and for Jeep is one that is not.

I got the cage squeaky clean and dried out. I put the cage back in
place where he can watch or at least see me as I watch TV and all. I
had replaced all the rugs on the wire mesh floor with Plexiglas to be
able to better keep it all clean. Jeep is such a mess the rugs were in
terrible shape when I took them out so the only alternative was the
Plexiglas. That has worked out very well. Jeep did not make much of any
resistance to the flooring change and really didn't mind not having
paper backing on the floor to make the floor look solid. I did put the
paper on there but that was of no consequence to him.

But this time when I put him back he spent all his time wandering up
and down to all floors like he was lost and exploring a totally new
cage. Every thing that was in there was put back exactly where it had
been except an old torn sweat shirt of mine he used once in a while to
wrap up in for sleep. That had been the issue Jeep was looking for. He
was wandering around looking for it saying under his breath WTF !!!!!
It was on the floor here when I was last in the cage and now it is
gone!

Jeep has only a few places he will sleep but all at once he was using
all kinds of different places to snooze. I cleaned the sweatshirt and
put it back where it used to be. For sure Jeep calmed down and stopped
all that wandering. He was missing that one piece of cloth that had
become his. With that being gone his house had been violated which
greatly disturbed him. But that piece of cloth being returned settled
his ire. Jeep almost immediately lay down on the shirt and took a
snooze. It was back and he was whole again !!!! I could hear the AHHHHH
miles off. Jeep is back to being himself cool calm and collected.

It took me a while to figure out what he was doing and why but when I
did it was academic. Jeep was never angry at me, just lost somewhat
where one key item of his was no longer there and for sure he missed
it. His wandering around was him telling me something was very wrong.
So I learned a few new ferret 'words' from Jeep.

Now to teach him how to pull start the lawn mower and mow the lawn !!!

_12-2Addy CEO

[Posted in FML 7759]