Yup.  she's here and cute as can be!!!  I'll give the good news before
the not-as-good.  Has a beautiful coat (not sure what they fed her
because they didn't send it with their daughter who delivered her)but
she's helthy looking, good weight.  Going to make a trip to the vets soon
with Kiki and get complete physicals on both girls and their shots.
(keeping my fingers crossed that Kiki doesn't have a reaction) ANYWAY.
Minky Boodle belonged to the parents on a nurse I worked with and I don't
think they ever learned anything about ferret care.  She was in a cage
that was too small (the Ferret Taj Mahal is currently under construction
and will probably be delivered to our house this weekend.  The friend
making it is pretty excited about how neat it looks... I may just want to
move into the ferrets new abode!!!I can't wait to see it.)  She's not a
MF ferret so there's no telling what sort of history she brings with
her...She's playful and after being chased for almost an hour solid by
kiki they finally speed bumped next to each other and just layed there
for a few giving each other the cutest looks... She didn't smell strong
which was probably the only other plus.  The cage she was in had no toys,
a dilapidated hammock (straight into the trash went the whole lot~) and
there was probably 3 inches of pine shavings on the bottom of the cage.
Her nails were HUGE.  (It's a wonder she hadn't pulled them out!) AND as
I was dumping the pine shavings out I saw a piece of a plastic flea
collar.  My immediate worry was that she had gotten ahold of it and
thought it was a toy, but it didn't look like she had chewn on it.  Then
I realize- she's been upstairs with Kiki for about an hour now and MAYBE
they put it in her cage thinking that it would keep fleas off her.  I
darted upstairs (none of our animals has fleas) and sure enough I found a
few on her so I ran to petsmart and bought a few things of their biospot
for ferrets (the store didn't carry any flea bath for ferrets!) So I hope
it works... I'm hoping I caught took care of the fleas bef ore they got
anywhere else...BTW if you call farnampets they'll send out coupons for
the biospot for ferrets.  I think they're the only ones that make the
stuff for ferrets.  ANYWAY The two are getting along fabulously and I've
been walking around all day grinning from ear to ear.  My baby is so
happy now!!!  They have already conspired to hide one tube of kittymalt
under the dresser.  (I know now where their favorite private stashing
place will be!)I introduced Minky Boodle to the wonders of raisins and
cat treats and lots and lots of TOYS!  I had to make up for thoroughly
pissing her off.  She apparently isn't used to being scruffed and
actually hissed/howled when I did it to trim her nails.  I only managed
to get one paw done and thought I'd try to do one a day.  I didn't want
to traumatize her on her first day with us.  I tried the kittymalt on the
belly thing (tried it on the finger first and she liked it), but as soon
as I did it she jumped up and rubbed it on the floor.  (Kiki immediately
found it and was more th an happy to help clean it up!) SO I'm going to
be patient with the nail care/scruffing thing and hope that she learns
that I'm not trying to hurt her... As for the litter box update, we made
progress last week and Kiki started using it, then we were setback
because my cat also decided to use it and that just made Kiki mad.  So
the upstairs is now a Kitty-Free-Zone.  Kiki has returned to the box.
YEAH!  Now I'm hoping she showes MB how the whole thing works... I was so
bummed out today because I had to leave all the dooking and dancing and
come to work.  I have let Kiki be free roam the last two days since she's
been using the litter box, but I thought for Minky Boodles first night
home she should be in the cage with Kiki.  Especially since no one can be
there to watch her and she's never used the litter box for us.  I'm going
to keep an eye on her the next couple of days and see if maybe we can
just use the Taj Mahal as a vacation home for the kids.  :-)
[Posted in FML issue 3863]