Hi Everyone!
 
I've been enjoying the list for a few weeks already now and would like to
introduce myself.  My hubby, 13 year old son, and I live in north Georgia.
We are owned by 4 Labradors, 2 ferrets, 3 goats, and an assortment of
tropical fish.
 
I thought this would be a good time for introductions, because we are
adopting the two fuzzes that (FlowerDog, sorry I forgot your real name),
posted about a few days ago!  We emailed the family having to give Ricky
and Trixie up, because of allergies and a big move across country.  I
figured that the ferts would end up being a billion miles away from us the
way they usually are when you want to help over the internet, but wrote to
them anyway, because I've also been frequenting the ferret message boards
and have seen many people looking to adopt.  Anyway...it ends up they are
in GA also!!  We've emailed back and forth with details and have decided
that this little 8 year old sable boy and 6 year old albino girl have
touched our hearts and will have to come and be a part of our family!  We
can't wait to see them!  Our ferrets are Rocky, a sable male who's about
5 years old that we bought from a local petstore when he was about a year
old, and Glacier, I think he is what I've heard called a marked white, who
is HUGE and about 5 years old also.  A friend of ours found Glacier walking
around in her subdivision and could not find his owners so we adopted him.
We had just lost a little female sable named Chloe that we had adopted.
Which brings up something I wanted to say to anyone who uses baby gates in
there home with ferrets.  Chloe was an escape artist.  She was so tiny she
could squeeze through the tiniest little places and we found her out a
couple of times at night and were trying to Chloe proof their cage.  One
morning we woke up and she was not there again.  We looked all over and
my son found her caught in a baby gate.  This was one of those gates with
the little (about 2 inch) square mesh made of metal with a white plastic
coating over it.  She had tried to go through one square and when she
couldn't get her little bottom through she turned and tried to go back
through the one just above it.  When we found her she was still just barely
breathing and I tried to carefully cut her out, but she was blue and took
her final little breaths as I held her in my arms and called the vet.  We
were just heartbroken and I wanted to kick myself.  Why didn't I get up a
little earlier, why didn't I make SURE she could not get out of her cage,
why had I ferret proofed the whole house and not realized the very gate I
thought would keep her safe and out of the upstairs rooms could end up
being deadly??  Needless to say...we no longer own that baby gate.  Rocky
just adored her and they played so well together...he was heartbroken and
we thought a new playmate might help.  However,Glacier was not playful at
all.  We kept thinking he probably missed maybe another ferret or person
from his former home and that he'd hopefully begin to be comfortable with
us.  Well...we've had this fella for a little over a year now and just in
the past two weeks has he come out of his shell.  We were amazed and jumped
for joy when our Glacier started acting like a ferret finally.  He still is
not a wild man like Rocky, but we have witnessed war dances out of him and
he wrestles around with Rocky all the time now.  Glacier is kindof a
nipper.  He's never bitten to bring blood, but just kinda snaps at you.
You can't hodd his face up to your face...he gets very uncomfortable and
nips at your face.  I was kinda thinking maybe it was a learned response
kind of thing.  I could picture him maybe around small kids who were kind
of rough and probably unsupervised while handling him.  He might have
learned that was the way he got down when he didn't want to be held.  He
seems to be trusting us more and more each day.  We've just treated him
very gently.  Another thing is that I'm beginning to wonder if he is deaf.
We've tried some some little test, but can't tell for sure yet.  We love
our two beautiful fur babies!
 
Some final arrangements for their travel here must still be made, but I
think they should be here next weekend!  I'd like to hear all the advice
from you fine, knowledgeable, ferret folks out there.  I'm concerned about
the oldest ones age, although I've been told I'd never know he was 8 if she
hadn't told me, because he is very playful and has never had any health
problems.  I want to make them as comfortable in their new home as I
possibly can.  Are there special things I can do to avoid as much stress
as possible?  Anything y'all can tell me would be greatly appreciated!
 
Well..I apologize for such a long read...guess I rambled on a little bit.
Looking forward to reading more ferret mail each day!  Will post an email
as soon as our new fuzzies arrive....can't wait!  Take care everyone!  Big
hugs from us!
 
Angela
[Posted in FML issue 3073]