Grover was my first. Last July/August, I had been thinking about getting a ferret for a while, and had been voraciously reading everything I could get my hands on. At the time, I had just graduated from chiro college and was planning on moving to WA state. I couldn't have animals (aside from my cat) where I was living, so I had sort of promised myself once I got moved, that I would bring a fuzzy or two into my life. Well, on one of my house-hunting trips, I came across an ad in the Little Nickel, ferret & everything for $100, up in Lynnwood. Something about the ad bothered me, so I called them up. I found a wonderful (small!) dark sable MF boy being kept in a garage (and sometimes allowed outside unleashed/unsupervised), the teenagers had become bored with him apparently. A big Midwest cage, but no shelves, just the floor. No litterbox. The father was *embarassed* to tell me that the ferret's name was Bandit. You get the picture. :-( (He also either lied or was misinformed about the ferret's age, but that's another story.) So...I bought him, then and there. Couldn't stand to walk away knowing the poor sweet guy was living in that situation. Loaded everything into the back of my car, had the ferret in the carrier (part of the purchase) and whisked him back to Oregon with me. He got the name "Grover" on the way home. :-) Of course, I still couldn't keep him at home because of my living situation, so he ended up boarding at a ferret shelter for a long while. The first shelter, he stayed at only for a couple days before he moved up to the CFN (which was closer, so I could visit more easily) but not before he met his new best friend, Onyx. So the two of them stayed at the CFN for a couple of months until I got myself relocated. Not the best situation, you might say, but FAR better than living in that @#$!@ garage! Plus, the CFN took AWESOME care of Onyx and him...souped him, gave him meds, and generally provided the expertise I wasn't up to speed with quite yet, and taught me tons about being a good Ferret Mom in the process... And having them teach me was a darned good thing because that fall, Grover was diagnosed with a raging case of Helicobacter/ulcers and I was then "tossed in and made to swim" with all the vomit, diarrhea, Flagyl-spat-all-over-me, souping, etc... Poor Grover has had a pretty tough life, poor sweetie. The ulcers are all better, now... and he has shown me that he actually DOES know how to dook and wardance and play (which he never did before) and I've even caught him stealing socks and crinklebags! It makes my tears come to my eyes every time I see him put on a playface and do a backflip in joy, or come up to me for kisses. Lately, he's starting to show signs of adrenal disease, and it just breaks my heart because it's like, Lord, what else can be dished out to this poor sweet little boy??? But he'll get the best care I can give him, no matter what. Megan & Grover, Onyx, Loki G., Satinka & Cherry [Posted in FML issue 2610]