Remember a few months ago I told you all about a ferret down the street which needed rescueing, but the owner's didn't want to give him up. Monday around 4:30 the neighbors daughter comes over asking me if I still wanted Pokey. I said "yes but had to ask the family who were not home." I had talked to a shelter about him back in the summer and they would take him. This shelter plus other's we do support. So the family said "this would be fine and we could have him go to a shelter which could take time since it's far away." Within less then an hour the ferret is here, with No Food and the owner doesn't know what she was feeding him. He is 5+ years old and you know how they don't change foods at this point. They called back and said "it was a bag they bought at this store which they tore opened and put in a plastic bag." Also, they would have to go to the store to get the name. (no one ever told me the name of the food) Told them the ferret will stop eating unless I feed it what it is used to. Called the store and they have 5 foods in a bag. We had two of them here so gave him this. He only had one diarrhea, but is doing fine. He likes the two foods we put in his cage. In fact, he ate three times during the night and kept me up. Only got maybe 4 hours sleep. They had a hugh oil can in the cage and boy did it smell real bad. He didn't smell very good either, but I already knew this. From what the whole family told me (in the summer) he rarely if ever let out of the cage in 3 1/2 years, never any ear cleaning or nails trimmed. His nails were curved over. The only thing in his cage was water/food/oil can and one small mouse. Oh, they had one of the two litter boxes in there we had given them in the summer. He is thankfully using the square box with put in with him for potty. Unfortunately, he is showing his bones/ribs. Since he was not let out of the cage in 3 1/2 years, does this mean he is skinny because of this or lack of food? . He smells alot better then yesterday. My son and mom wants to keep him, but not sure this will be possible. Him being an only ferret for 5+ years, not being let out of the cage, probably won't work well with our 5 youngins. I'm feeling like a retard (no pun intended). Not sure how to play with him. You would think I would with having five. I'm trying not to scare him since he probably has not played in so many years. He's walking around pretty fast for an old fella,hehe. He got out of the bedroom twice now,hehehe. He gave me kisses this morning. We put a few more toys in the bedroom. He likes to follow me around so I have been walking around, clapping my hands. Not sure how these shelter's do this playing thing when they don't even have a history of the ferret. I'm still being cautious tho. So far no nipping or biting yet. Today I let two at a time smell him thru the cage. Because if he stresses out, I rather get it over with quick into the quarantine period. Feel confident in the story of his history, otherwise, I would have waited longer for them to see each other. Not sure how quickly I should introduce since he is older and never been around other ferret's. We did let a few walk near him and only had one nip play with the two. He did slip a few times on the kitchen floor. This could be because he is not used to walking with small nails and his back part is skinny. Hope my story made sense. He is being spunky which is nice to see. Debbie [Posted in FML issue 2884]