Thought we'd like to share some good news! On December 2, I added a new generation of ferrets to my clan. I'd been looking to add some "young blood" to my family for a while, and thanks to Chris and Tara Palaski, who run the Chester County branch of the PFRA, it finally happened. I welcomed two six and a half week old baby ferrets to our family. One is a little sable and the other a darling chocolate. They have been named 'Lil Grunt (sable) and Kerplunk (chocolate), and my God, are they tiny! Their tails are shorter than my index finger! I had eight ferrets, plus the shelters of course. Why add? (As if I need to clarify this here!!) Well, my "family" is pretty old, well, getting there. My Ricky and Sassy are my oldest, they will celebrate their seventh birthday on Valentine's Day. Ricky has suffered a number of strokes/seizures (not insulinoma) and as a result he is now a tad retarded (but very happy, he does not suffer). Sassy was just diagnosed with insulinoma--very tragic as she has never in her life been ill, honestly! Shadow is going to be six on January 1st. He's in great health, thankfully, but his activity level has been decreasing (as his weight has been increasing :-) ). Slinky will be six years old in April, and he's starting to show his creaky bones as well. Here Comes Trouble will be five years old this coming April (my God where does the time go?) and my Koto just turned four in September. The only really "young" ferrets that I had were my Mookie and Mikayla, who are going to be two years old in March. All ferrets except for Shadow and Trouble came to me through the shelter and could not leave for one reason or another, and therefore I did not share in their baby years, I did not name them, I didn't get to learn their personalities young nor could I help to mold them. I'd forgotten what it was like to have a baby! After my Patches passed away :-( I decided that I needed some spirit lifting. I couldn't keep on doing what I do, rescuing ferrets and seeing horrible things, and then watch my own ferrets grow old, sick, and pass away without balancing it with some joy and pleasure. Yes, selfish, but very necessary. I decided that I wanted to find some baby ferrets to be just mine. My opportunity came when Chris and Tara offered to give me a ferret baby as a wedding gift (the best present I could get! :-) So finally, on Tuesday, the opportunity came and I picked out my little darlings. Kerplunk was almost named Puddles, because in the first twenty minutes that we knew him, he peed on me, Chris, Tara, and a dog six times, he was so frightened! I coudn't subject him to that horrid name for all of his life, though, and Kerplunk seemed to fit him. 'Lil Grunt was named because from the moment I got him, all he did was make these funny, almost duck-quack, noises. The first night I had him, every time I put him down and tried to walk away, he just kept making these noises, but if I picked him up, he stopped. It was just so sweet! They have adjusted SOOOO well to being here. They're already caged with Mookie and Mikayla, they love them. We even had a communal romp tonight with eight ferrets out and they all got along splendidly. And when any of the bigger ferrets tried to bully the babies, they stood right up for themselves and harmony won. They hardly bite, never hard, and they give such ENTHUSIASTIC kisses, I can't believe I waited this long to have new babies. Well this is pretty long so I'll go, but I have a feeling that I'm gonna want to share more joy, so I hope you all want to hear it! ;-^ Kymberlie Becker Barone Director, Pennsylvania Ferret Rescue Association "Forget Puppy Love...There's nothing Greater than Ferret Love!" TM http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/ferretlady [Posted in FML issue 2148]