Hi FML,
 
I don't usually post about my ferrets, but I wanted to ask for good
thoughts and prayers for 5-year-old Nikita, who will be going in for her
second (right-side) adrenal surgery on Thursday.
 
I got Nikki in February of 1997.  I had picked out a little silver-mitt
male at the pet store (this was before I knew there were ferret
shelters!), but he was on "hold".  So instead I turned my sights onto a
scrappy black little female ferret.  She was the only ferret in the cage
that would climb to dizzying heights and sleep in the one hammock they had
strung up right at the top.  I reached in to pick her up and she grabbed
my thumb with her little front paws and hung on as I lifted her out.  She
squirmed her way up onto my shoulder and began industriously licking my
earlobe.  My heart melted and I asked them to hold her for me until the
next day, when I'd be in to purchase her.
 
To my surprise (and delight!), when I returned the next day, the "Hold
Grey Ferret" sign was gone.  The silver mitt boy was back up for grabs!
Although I had told my husband I would be out picking up our new FERRET,
I actually returned with our first FERRETS!
 
Nikita and Dante were best chums until about August, when a co-worker
mentioned to me that she had a ferret.  Thinking that we could exchange
funny ferret stories, I said, "I have two!" My co-worker answered, "Want
mine?  I'm trying to get rid of him." I agreed to meet her ferret, not
sure if I wanted a third, and the girl immediately went home and brought
back (to the grocery store where we worked) a large, scared brown sable
male ferret.  She plopped him down on the counter, where he proceeded to
shed vigorously from stress (he was all of 4-5 months old).  A collar was
wrapped so tightly around his neck that it was embedded in his skin.  I
hastily told her I'd take him.  She had just purchased three bottles of
soda, and she picked up the ferret and tossed him into the bag with the
sodas.  I could hear him scrabbling around.  "You can come get him on
Friday," she suggested.  I assured her I'd be at her house right after
work to get this little critter out of her clutches.
 
When I got the new ferret, Dusty, home, Dante immediately took to the new
male ferret.  Where before he had played and curled up with Nikki, he now
lavished attention on the new guy, and Nikki curled up by herself while
Dusty and Dante wrapped themselves together like ying and yang.  Dusty
and Dante frolicked and wrestled while Nikki played by herself under her
favorite chair with her toys.  There was a definite sadness about her as
she watched Dante dance by without so much as a glance at her, intent upon
his games with his new guy friend!
 
Thinking that what really would cheer Nikki up was a little female friend
(to balance the rowdy male ferret ratio), we brought home a little female
kit in December of 1997.  Little Willow (nicknamed Beanie because she
never grew any bigger than a Beanie Baby) was supposed to be Nikki's new
companion, but Nikki took one look at Willow and bolted under the nearest
chair in a jealous sulk.  For the first three months that Willow lived
with us, Nikki never came out from under her chair.  All we saw of her
was the tip of her nose, which followed the baby ferret as danced by.
 
Nikki never really learned to be "one of the gang".  Several months after
Willow joined us, we brought home Boomer and Rocky, a pair who had been at
the pet store for several months and were almost full-grown.  The pet
store gave me a "two-for-one" deal, because I'd fallen in love with
Boomer, a black sable male, and they threw in albino Rocky.  Nikki
accepted their arrival with obvious resignation.  She slept in a pile of
ferrets in the cage, but when it was "out time", Nikki preferred (and
still does) to be by herself, molesting her stuffed animals and chewing
their eyes off, collecting her beanie babies, or finding a quiet place
for a nap.
 
Nikki had her first adrenal gland out last January.  While 2 of my boys
just got a little thin fur during their adrenal illness, Nikki went
absolutely spanking bald within a few months.  Shortly after her surgery
she grew back a thick, soft coat, but now it's almost gone again, except
for her head, paws, and the tip of her tail.
 
Nikki's greatest joys in life are the occasional Cheerio, a bowl of warm
duck soup, and the privilege of riding shoulders.  Each morning she sits
on my shoulder while I change the litterbox and water bowls, and watches
me make breakfast (she insists on sniffing everything as I go...the frozen
bagel, the juice glass, the egg carton).  She gets picked on a lot because
she won't join in ferret games, and screams when another ferret so much as
nips at her.  Although when she's asleep she's part of the pig-pile in the
hammock, when Nikki is awake she makes it clear that she wishes she was an
"only ferret".  She loves her people, though.  When my husband takes a
shower she sits patiently outside the bathroom door waiting for him to
come out so she can lick water drops off his feet.
 
So if any good thoughts, best wishes, and prayers could be sent toward my
little girl who's having her surgery this Thursday, I'd appreciate it.
She pulled through her first one beautifully, but she's older this time,
and right-side is riskier.  We have a brilliant vet who has done countless
adrenal surgeries, so Nikki is in good hands.  But her mom will be nervous
until we get the call that it all went well.  So if you have a moment,
please wish my Nikki good luck!
 
Thanks,
Heather W. in Massachusetts
[Posted in FML issue 3727]