I have been lurking on this list for some time, in order to know best how to
be a good ferret mom when I become one.  Now I am a ferret owner lurking to
find out more about my new pets.
 
Let me introduce my girls.  I named them after Egyptian goddesses, because
many believe the Egyptians were the first to domesticate ferrets.  I have a
cinnamon named Shu, after the Egyptian goddess of the wind.  My sable is
named Isis, which I think is a particularly inspired name for a ferret.  The
goddess Isis was the sister of Osiris, who had a lot of enemies who wanted
to kill him.  Isis would hide him form them, but one day, when she had
hidden him in a tree, Osiris was found and murdered, and his body was cut in
pieces and scattered around.  Then Isis searched fro the pieces and gathered
them together in her stash.  (does this remind you of somebody you know?)
When she gathered enough pieces Osiris came back to life and turned into the
constellation Orion, and Isis turned into the star we know about Sirius.
But while Isis has a neat legend, I find that I can gett better pictures of
Shu, because she will sit for a half second longer.  Both of them are
wonderful pets with vivid personalities.  I'll tell you more about that
later.
 
At this point, I have a few questions:
1.  I've read tons about feeding, housebreaking, diseases, and such
important stuff.  However, I find that these girls are different enough from
other pets that I find myself looking for hints about neat games to play
with them.  They like to wrestle each other, but I don't want to play with
them in a way that encourages nipping.  (I've just about trained them out of
that) Their favorite game is for me to drag a towel around while they ride
it, an idea I picked up here.  Does anybody have any othet neat games.  I
even think we could have a FAQ on playing with ferrets.
2.  I have found the products that keep the ferrets from smelling, but my
sweet smelling girls leave quite an oder in rooms where thay spend a lot of
time.  How do you deal with all of that.
 
3.  I have been reading Bob's posts with great interest, and was very
interested in his tip about giving ferrets a pipeful of hard mud to dig.  I
think Shu needs to have some mud to dig, and wondered where to get the
"Rabbit Stink" that he rcommended.  I am not a hunter by a long shot, and
would like to know where in MD I should look for this new and unusual
product.
[Posted in FML issue 1604]