Hello, I thought I would add my story to the introduction list. I wrote this story two months age when I first got on the list but I am resending it as everyone is telling theirs now. There are a couple of changes in it. We have one less ferret as we were fostering one of ours and she has gone back to be adopted. I wish you all a wonderful ferretry holiday!! Terry Hi, I would like to introduce myself to the list. My name is Terry Quinn. I am married and have nine children, four ferrets and three cats( we had five ferrets.One was a shelter one that we fostered. We have relinquished her to be adopted since.). Are any of you still with me?? We have five adopted children and four birth children. We had only two cats when one day my daughter got this bright idea that she wanted a ferret for a pet. We researched everything we could about ferrets (as in those days for us, ferrets were considered and exotic animal....) Lol. Then my daughter saved up all her babysitting money, which took months. We went to a pet fair and there we saw a woman from a shelter who had ferrets. She let us hold some of hers and it was there for the first time I found out what a ferret felt like or smelled like. She had whole ferrets so the latter wasn't much good to me. I was not too thrilled but my daughter was still in the ballgame. The breeder said that if my daughter got a ferret that she would help us any way she could. That began a relationship that continues to this day. Then the big day came! We went to the pet store with all the money that my daughter had saved and armed with all the knowledge about ferrets that we could have found, we picked out a baby ferret. That was Romeo. On the way home, we had to stop at the grocery store and it was a bit cool in the car but not cold. It was April. Well when we got back to the car that little baby was actuallly crying. It nearly broke my heart. We took him out of the cage to cuddle him and he quieted down. At home he seemed fine. Megan was quite happy with her new pet. Romeo began his charm on everyone. He was a tad bitey at first but did not take long to train. The biggest problem we had with him was his scratching at my daughters bedroom door to get out. It tore up our carpet. He litter trained wonderful and remained HYPER and loads of fun. Well one day when we were visiting our breeder friend (we loved to go there and just look at ferrets) , we got to see some new babies. OH NO, I exclaimed!! They are so darling. Megan turned to me and said " Well mom, you will have to sell some of your drawings" . I am an artist and did graphic designs for Art stamps and sold them. My friend, Scarlet, said "You are and artist?" ....well that was all and we were off, brainstorming an art design for her in exchange for a ferret. That ended up being Nikita...MY FIRST BABY ferret of my own. What a doll she is. SO sweet. She was bite trained in two days and so calm and loving from day one. Her and Romeo got along so wonderful. I think Romeo was happy to have a little sister. He was so rambunctious and she was a lady. He dragged her around and made her cry. But they grew up together and were good together. By now I am a bit by the ferret bug. A year later, Next comes Cocobear..... a rescue from my friend Scarlet, and then a few months later.......Bubba a rescue(from another shelter here in Ohio run by a wonderful and dear friend of mine) My husband is putting his foot down......NO MORE FERRETS!!!! (however when ButterCup our third cat showed up at our door begging for a home, It was HIS idea that we keep her, GO FIGURE!) He does admitt,however, that they ARE rather fun. Bubba is a huge baby. Only six months old and he won 6th place in a ferret show in the shelter ferret specialty. All of our kids LOVE our ferrets. They are all very kind to them and enjoy playing with them. Our ferrets all seem to enjoy all our kids too. They love mornings as that is play time. Then they all get feretone and back to their four foot by five foot cage. POVERTY HUH?? They of course don't know how good they have it. They don't realize that some ferrets actually live in sad conditions. All they know is they are loved and that is what counts. Terry Quinn Warm Fuzzie Babies Romeo.....The Conqeror (Romie) Black Sable Niquita.....The teenie (under a lb.and a half) Nicknamed (Kita) Sable CoCoBear.......The Hissie (Cokie) Chocolate Bubba Jacob...The BEAR! (Bubbie) Siamese...Maybe New Zealand Cotton Patch...The Angel(so she thinks)She is deaf (Cotton) Dark Eyed White Dalmation [huh? BIG] [Posted in FML issue 2887]