What got you interested in ferrets? I never saw one till someone in
Mass had one on his shoulder. He was from Conn. where they were legal
to have. Never saw one before then, and not again till I moved to Va.

Neighbor had one and I liked the animal. I saw another at the gun club.
It was great at carrying that moving target. That worked great till he
got into the shot gun range. Ummmmmm.

So I decided I wanted a pet and thought for months of what I wanted.
Didn't want a dog, just too much animal. Didn't want a cat. I decided
I wanted something different and then thought of a ferret. So I bought
this big bag of dog food in preparation of the ferret. Then I learned
they did not eat that crap so gave that to my neighbor. I stopped at a
pet store and there were several ferrets in a big fish tank for sale.
I bought Byte-me.

I didn't even have a cage! So I left her to run around in the house
loose and went to another pet store and got a rabbit cage. That was a
perfect start but it needed so much more. I put water and got proper
food for her and had a towel in there for her to lay on. She was using
the litter box ok so that seemed to be a good start.

Searching on the net I found the Ferret Store, and got a 'J' feeder and
hammock. That was great, she loved them both. I modified the cage for
the 'J' feeder. But that cage seemed a bit small so I bought a second
rabbit cage and merged them together making two floors. That began to
work out but I made this huge hole in the floor of the second cage for
her to get up there. She needed a ramp. So I made a ramp and fixed the
floor and also added carpet for the cage floor for her to walk on. This
was progress.

Then I decided she needed more room and put a third rabbit cage on top
and more ramps and hammys. This was getting fun and complex. I made a
frame for the base and put wheels on it so I could mover the cage
around. That worked perfect!

After time I continued to modify the cage adding and subtracting things
experimenting till I got what suited me and suited Byte-me. Both were
happy. But Byte-me needed company when I was away so I bought
Nibble-ed. That worked.

Then a friend saw my cage and wanted one like it. He bought a 100 foot
roll of that wire for me to make a cage for him. I built it but found
the mating of sides was not really good the way I did it. Searching the
net I found a tool and the 'j' clips which worked perfectly. I found a
local Southern States store had a supply of 'J' clips and bought nearly
a dozen bags of them. Most are used up now! Ha!

So I made a huge cage for my friend using one of the left over pans of
the rabbit cage for him and still had one more bottom and allot of left
over wire. So I built a third cage. No two were alike.

Then my friend's wife decided she did not like what I made and bought
some store ferret cage which had 1/10 the room in it and had the most
feeble legs on it. That is where Diz lived. Diz came here while they
were on vacation and I fixed the bad legs on her cage. My friend gave
back the cage I built for him. I worked on it a bit, didn't need much
and sold it to someone locally who was more than ecstatic to get it!
Great! With the money I got for that I paid my friend for what he
spent so we were even.

With the left over wire and last left over base I built a third cage.
Magnificent! This worked out great where I took in a couple rescues,
Podo and Kodo from S.C. Then I got Bud from a shelter at VA beach so
I had now a business of ferrets and they all had tons of room.

Podo was in terrible health, just horrid. There was no recourse but to
put him down. This was the first ferret loss. He was with me less than
2 months but was an excellent guy. I felt terrible but did what was
correct for us each. He was an excellent guy.

So was down to 4. I had to separate Kodo from the others where he was
attacking them. So I kept the two cages next to each other so they
could see each other and sniff each other and all, over time they
melded to be friends. So was Kodo, Bud, Byte-me and Nibble-ed.

A year later Bud passed. I think Nibble-ed did that where if Nib
detected another weak she would assault them. Is what she was doing to
Podo. One morning I got up and found Bud dead but his neck was very
wet, I guess from Nib's assault.

Was down to three. NIb passed one night. I could see she was not
feeling well and was loosing weight. I got up one morning and found
her dead in the hall. Have no idea what happened.

Kodo then got Megasophagus. That was horrid. Over time and lots of
force feeding even that failed. So it came time for me to put him down.
That hurt. Kodo was a most excellent guy. I loved them all to death (no
pun) and they were thinning out.

Was left with Byte-me, my very first ferret. She and I could
communicate. That was totally amazing.

One day I went to work and told people I didn't think Byte-me would
greet me when I got home. She was old, very old for a ferret and I
could see she was fading. When I got home that day she was laying in
her hammy exactly where I put her just before I left for work. She had
passed. I grieve them all but of them all Byte-me I miss the very most.

So I was without for a while. People on the FML knew it and were trying
to get me interested in two ferrets in West Virginia that the SPCA had
and were going to put down where no one wanted them and they needed
room these guys were taking up. They had been there a very long time,
well over a year.

But they were just too far off for me to get so I declined. People on
the FML kept telling me I needed to go get them and I kept declining.
Then a rescue shelter near DC had an idea and plan.

She would go bowling west of her shelter and bowled with a guy from
west of the bowling center who lived somewhat east of the SPCA. So
this
guy went west to the SPCA and got the animals. He kept them for a day
or so and brought them to the bowling center to give to the shelter
person who brought them back to her shelter. She kept them for a
couple days. Then some person volunteered to drive them south to
Fredericksburg where I drove up to meet her and get them.

Now I have Peekaboo who is blind and deaf and Pester who is a ball of
fire earning her name pestering Peekaboo.

They really don't totally get along but tolerate each other well enough
to not fight. They did in the beginning but that stopped with my
intervention. At least I was able to get the point across to them.

So here we are. After the original business that had other additions,
Pete and RePete, Rug Lumper, and a couple others I took in from
shelters. These were all very old when I got them, no one wanted them
for their age so I took them giving them a forever home. They passed
in time.

As I said, I grieve every one of them. Each were different, each had
magnificent traits, and were so very happy to have a great place to
sleep and play with lots of 'out' time.

So that is my story of ferrets. I will always have a ferret as a house
mate. A great animal, not a pet for everyone, but perfect for me. I
love them all and want every one I see in a store. Just can't do that
but I can still want can't I ?

Gordon, Pester and Peekaboo

Rev. J Gordon Bengtson
Aarrow-Ranch Aviation
Mechanicsville, Virginia  23111

[Posted in FML 6266]