>YOU KNOW YOU HAVE A BIG FERRET
>WHEN Your 1 1/2 lb sprite rides him like a horse
>When ...
>When...
 
Oh, June...you could be describing White Russian!  He's only 4 lbs., but is
just solid muscle.  I had to change everything...how high I hung the sleep
sacks...the size of the sleep sacks, etc.  I don't think he had slept in a
sleep sack before, as he was being bred.  The first time, when he woke up,
he just fell out...definitely with a "thud".  Luckily, he landed on tiny
Chablis, his cage mate.  I was afraid he had crushed her, but she barely
glanced at him...probably used to him as she's had two litters by him.
 
The thing he does that always amazes my husband and I (and we get such a
kick out of it), is that anything in his way, he just puts his head down
and shoves it out of the way with that muscular neck.  We've seen him push
a 4 level cage away from the wall with his head...he wanted to get to the
other side and didn't want to bother going around it!  Our bedroom is the
one room in the house that's off limits to the ferrets, so that is the one
room they ALL want to get in.  All my other ferrets will wait by the door
(just to see if it will open), but if it does, will hesitate to see if we
might let them "sneak" in, which we do on rare occasions.  Russian, on the
other hand, sees that door opening, puts his head down and charges...he
doesn't even slow down!  We get such a kick out of him.  I recently took
him to a LIFE show and each judge asks "May I scruff your ferret?".  Well,
Russian has no scruff...just solid muscle.  It was fun watching the judges
try, though!  Each one had to smile and finally just grab him by the back
of the neck and kind of gently throw him down on his back to check his
teeth, etc.  They got such a kick out of him!  I was, of course,
disappointed that he didn't get a ribbon.  His tail is too short and his
teeth are stained from food or medication he was on before he came to live
with me.  The LIFE Show Standards book said the judges would not count
"stained" teeth (as opposed to dirty teeth) against a ferret, but I asked
one of the judges and was told basically that whether they're stained or
dirty it didn't matter...they were judging for the "perfect" ferret.  (I
wish they'd change their book).  Maybe he'll do better at the AFA show.  I
know last year one of my ferrets got a blue ribbon from one judge for
alters and a red ribbon from one of the other judges for alters.  At the
LIFE show, he didn't even place...in fact, he scored pretty low.  I guess
the two organizations look for different things in the "perfect" ferret..
 
Judy
[Posted in FML issue 2799]