Friday, February 03, 2006

Curious George

My Georgie. I loved him very, very much. When Sugar died we grieved for her even though she had only been in our life for a very short time. While at the nameless pet store we (my husband & I) decided to play with the kits. This is a bad idea; it's how ferret math works. So I see this unusual ferret, his markings were unique; he had a small body, & a big head. Really he was all head, lol. Anyway, I felt a pull something that just called to me. I debated leaving him there. At the time one of the employees was a ferret owner (she had 13 ferrets!) and I was talking to her & she commented how he was unique to her too. I couldn't walk away from him so as an anniversary present my husband bought him for me. Georgie and I were like nails & dirt or as we say in Spanish una y carne (nail & skin). He was so SPOILED, when I brought him home to meet the rest of the family (at this point it was Bandit, Princess, & Bear) he was non-challant. He was a character. George knew he was the king in my heart so I think he took advantage of that because when he would eat ( Sheppard & Greene) mixed with Iams Kitten Food) he would not let any of the other ferrets came near him or he would cry. I know, CRY. If you've never heard it, it sounds much like a parrot squawking. I would come running to the cage to see what was happening, scold the other ferrets because they wouldn't let my Georgie eat, pull him & the bowl of food out so he could enjoy his food. Now this happened primarily when I was not in the room, so I really did not know what was going on, I just assumed the other ferrets were picking on him because he was little. I decided then to buy him his own bowl and I did. I put his bowl next to the other bowl. That was a mistake. I finally figured out what was happening, he did not want any of the ferrets to come near the food when he was eating so he was crying @ them! I found him with his bottom in his bowl & his front paws and face in the other bowl! What a booger!! This made me love him even more, no one in my family was allowed to touch my Georgie, we watched TV together, slept together, played together, and it was awesome! When we weren't together he was into so much mischief! Once he wanted to clear the gate (clear Plexiglas) so he jumped on the couch to try to jump on the oscillating fan, to jump over the gate, well needless to say his plan failed and was hanging on by a nail! When he jumped onto the oscillating fan he slid & I assume he was trying to grip so where the fan comes together in the middle the gap is close, his nail was wedged there. He yelped so loud, my husband and I got up in a flash, ran down the stairs & found him in that state! Geez, I never had been so scared! IT WAS FIVE IN THE MORNING! And I had a really rude awakening so I think that added to my fear. Of course this wasn't the end of Georgie's mischief. At the time I had a 2-tier cage that the ferrets lived in and there was a potty on each tier. We (by we I mean my 2 daughters and I) would take turns cleaning out the litter boxes (by the way I use Yesterday’s News Cat litter) and it was my eldest daughter's turn, and while she was cleaning the top tier litter box, she figured "Oh, they won't try to escape out of the cage while I'm standing here" so she left the cage open turned around and who comes flying out? You guessed, Georgie. Only in his haste he wasn't careful and got himself stuck. Let me see if I can try to help you with a visual (guys you may want to skip ahead), the cage is mostly coated wire, the little "door" has sharp ends, Georgie's opening got caught on the sharp end & dangled by his opening from the second tier. Ouch!! Poor thing yelped again. I took him to the vet right away but because boy ferret openings are so small there was nothing the vet could do except tell me to watch him closely so he can still use it for normal day-to-day functions. Needless to say he ended up with a slit on his little opening and recovered as well as any male ferret could. Oh he's a Curious George and that is why he was name George! By the way, on a side note, in loving memory of my Curious George I am going to see the Curious George movie coming out. OMGosh! It's very late & I have to work, so I leave on this note, Love your companions often because you never know when they will say good bye and my Georgie's goodbye will be a sorry for another time.

Good nite!

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Bear

Bear, Bear, Bear. What can I say about Bear? Where do I start! Well Bear we got to be a companion to Sugar. See, when we got Princess she and Bandit were buds so we figured that if we got someone for Sugar maybe she would feel she needed a reason to fight the greenies. So, I just listened & looked were I could for that companion. One day we went to the Pet Store (which will remain nameless because I do not want to advertise for them seeing that they are a horrific store) to buy some supplies when we noticed the ferrets! BABY ferrets! Oh my goodness, they are the cutest little things I have ever seen! So there were quite a few kits we picked them up, played with them, let them nip @ our fingers, and let them climb all over us. My husband, who was against the whole idea in the first place, saw this cute dark ferret. He says, "He looks like a little bear!" "If I had him, I would name him Little Bear because he looks like a bear & he is the smallest of the bunch!" If you could have seen the look on his face when he saw bear, his eyes were all water & the look on his face was so soft & sensitive. I sincerely thought that if we walked away from that store with out that kit he would feel really bad & even shed a tear, so I bought him.

When we took him home, Princess forgot all about Bandit and started dooking & following "Little Bear" everywhere he went. Oh my! I would guess that her maternal instincts kicked in or something because she definitely followed him like she needed to protect him. Sugar was not affected either way by his presence. It was really sad to see her deteriorate but "Little Bear" flourished so much so we don't call him "Little Bear" anymore, he's just Bear.
It's hard to tell but there are 3 fuzzies in this picture. Benjamin (black nose), Cookie (pink nose), & Bear (darkie, can only see his leg). Quite the trio. This is thier favorite place to hang out. Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Sugar & Spice

Well, I took Princess home but I was still new to the ferreting world and I did not know exactly how to handle her biting issues. My husband didn't want to wait around to see if I would ever figure it out so he suggested since I was going to go to the GCFA (see link) to adopt a ferret why not leave Princess there were a more experienced ferret owner could take her (how naive). The day soon approached and Princess had bitten me, not over my clothes but only where she felt SOFT SKIN, so many times! We all had! But still, I fell in love with her in a matter of 2 days. On the day of going to the GCFA, I told my husband I did not like the idea of dropping her off @ the shelter, the idea of the shelter is to place them in GOOD homes, not pick one up and leave one. How could we just leave her there and not even give her the chance to prove she could be shown love and stop biting. Well, we got to the shelter and I told the person in charge we were going to keep princess after all but I still wanted to adopt a ferret. He showed us "Queenie." She was a cute ferret but not what I was looking for. She was older and was an Albino ferret. Well, she played well with our two ferrets and I decided what the hay, I'll take her. My youngest daughter fell in love with her right away. When we took her home we renamed her (I did not like the name Queenie). We were going to rename princess as well but decided against it. Originally it would have been Bandit, Sugar & Spice. Anyway, as I mentioned before, I was still very green when it came to owning ferrets & did not know the quarantine rule. ICK! Never again will I ever forget the quarantine rule. Apparently the shelter forgot to tell me that a VERY contagious illness had been going around & Sugar may have possibly contracted it. It was the green slime disease. All my ferrets got it and unfortunately Sugar never recovered from it.
The only way to treat the greenies is by feeding the ferret Pedialyte (for loss of electrolytes) and a duck soup. And contrary to what "experts" say about how to feed the ferret these things I do not suggest using a syringe. This method can actually cause the ferret harm due to the fact that if the ferret swallows down the wrong pipe it can aspirate. (Just a tidbit of advice)