Well this goes back to my teenage years, but I have no trouble
remembering.
 
DeeDee, a senior Albino girl, I rescued from an absentminded, abusive
teenager.  She was my first ferret.  Even through her abuse, she was so
happy and loving that she stayed with us for nearly 7yrs.  She past at
the age of 12 from adreanal.
 
Lucifer, a tiny Sable MF girl.  My husband purchased her from our local
Petco 3 yrs ago as a Valentines present for me.  Even full grown this
little firecracker ferret is only 1.7 lbs.  She is regal and loves to
get into trouble and then give kisses when she gets caught.  She is
known here as the little princess or Little Lady
 
Kyba, a Sable Mitt MF Male.  Kyba is another Petco ferret, though his
story is a little different.  Kyba was born blind in one eye.  My vet
thinks its a injury caused in the womb due to the scar tissue on his
retnia.  Because of this, no one wanted this little guy because he bit
if you came up too quickly on his bad side.  I fell in love with him on
site with his little white paws and his white bib.  Kyba's training was a
little different due to his eye, but with patience and lots of Ferretone,
he is my cuddlebug now.
 
Shea, our Albino, is a special ferret for us here.  After a real scare
with Kyba that we almost lost him.  I saw the stress Lucifer was under
not having her cage mate their while Kyba was in the hospital, I knew
that fuzzy math was taking hold.  We had gone to the Grand Opening of
another Petco in a nearby town and found this little white bundle of
fluff cowering in the corner of the ferret playpen.  I asked to see him
and was told by the staff there that unless I knew how to hanlde a ferret
with severe biting issues to look at another one.  I insisted on seeing
the white one.  I was told that he was nearly 4m old and had been
returned to another store 2 times already because of his biting.  When
he was handed to me, he was shaking as if humans scared him to death.
As I held him, yes he bit me, but I didn't care.  As I was petting him
trying to soothe him, I noticed a bend in his little tail.  I looked at
my husband and told him we had to get this poor little guy out of there.
Like my other 2 ferrets, Lucifer and Kyba, my husband agrees to a ferret
only when they bite his nose.  Well since Shea was a biter, that was no
problem.  We took him home, he was dirty and smelly, his nails were a
mess and his ears caked like they had never been cleaned.  I called our
vet.  The introductions couldn't have gone any smoother with my 2
resident ferrets.  Lucifer became Shea's protector and cuddled with him
immediately.  Shea was a wild kit, and still is today at nearly a year
old.  Our first few days with him, this poor little guy got a bath and
nails and ears cleaned and this is when I started to notice that he
wasn't like my other two.  He never reacted to me calling him, or the
dogs barking or the crinkle of a plastic bag.  I suspected this poor
little guy was deaf.  We took him to the vet the following week and to
my horror we found out this little guy had been abused.  Upon his exam
our vet found that his tail had been broken and was never treated and had
healed crooked, there were spots on his body that he favored and didn't
want anyone to touch.  When our vet moved his hands too quickly, Shea
puffed up and lunged at him.  All signs that he was abused.  When I told
our vet about my theory that he was deaf, he performed a few audio tests
on him and yes he is 100% deaf.  This now answers the biting problem.
And when you put 1 and 1 together, this is probably why he was abused
too.  All I could think is how can someone do something like this to my
poor little Shea.  It made me mad as heck.  Our vet told us that we
probably saved his life because he has seen too many animals returned to
pet stores over and over again for this.  I am happy to say that Shea is
now a lovable, cuddly FAT ferret.  Nearly 5lbs of spitfire.  He and Kyba
go through the Alpha ferret battle everyday(Kyba is smaller than Shea and
yet Shea submitts to him everytime).  When Shea loses he comes running to
mommy to bathe my face in kisses.  He only bites in play now and with
carefull training with tons of praise and rewards he responds to hand
signals and a laser pointer now.  I don't used food rewards much unless
he has really done something extra special, he normally gets his favorite
toys to play with or some new thing to explore.  He still has his moments
but they are now few and far between.  He has made our home complete.
 
And now as fuzzy math starts to itch in my heart, I now turn to those
ferrets in shelters that are unadoptable or ill, abused or dumped and
thank the shelter moms and dads that are helping these poor little
creatures that at some time in their lives knew love and now must deal
with how cruel some humans are.  Bravo to those who stand up for these
little guys.  Bravo for opening your hearts and homes.  Bravo for helping
these poor little ones learn that not all us humans are evil and there
are those of us out there who will love them and treat them how they
should be, with love and cuddles, patience and laughter.
 
Sandy and the
Troublesome Threesome
Lucifer, Kyba and Shea
In Memory of  DeeDee
[Posted in FML issue 5091]