Thursday, March 20, 2014
Thursday, October 06, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Poor lil Ferts!
Went to the pet store and was saddened by the state the ferrets were in. It really is sad how much ignorance there is regarding these lil babies. Some say that ferrets have a “stink” about them but that “stink” is a defense mechanism much like the skunk. If you look closely, ferrets have 2 tattoos that look like dots on their ear. The dots indicate that a ferret has been “de-sexed” and “de-scented”. So, the truth about ferrets is they really don’t smell bad if you keep their environment clean. Having said that, when we approached these particular ferrets’s “habitat” I noticed a foul smell, I winced and so did my husband. There were 3 ferrets, I am unsure if they were DEW (dark eyed whites) or Albinos because they were sleeping, they were huddled together in the litter box and their food bowl had bits of the “bedding” and was mushy and gross looking.
One such instance moved my husband and I to adopt 2 kits from a pet store. Their conditions being much the same with the exception of the space they had available. NONE. Ugh! You know what really gets me? Never mind – I had to delete what I wrote because it wasn’t nice. I just can not stress enough how important it is to be well informed. Unfortunately, not all pet store employees know what they are talking about. Want to be well informed? Goto the World Wide Web and search for shelters for the specific animal. Chances are they will know A LOT more than any pet store employee. Here is a handy link The American Ferret Association.
I digress. Back to my original story.
We felt really bad for these two lil kits. One was a caramel color and the other was a brownie. The caramel colored ferret we named Scrappy – boy was he ever! And the lil brownie – Brownie. She was so adorable and my husband loved her because she reminded him of our baby, Roxy.
At the time we still had Bandit, Bear, Mittens, Cookie and Benjamin so adding 2 more! ACH! It wasn’t in MY plans but what could we do? We couldn’t leave them there to whatever fate lie ahead. I definitely needed a bigger cage (preferably another cage) and hopefully my ferts would get along with the old. Bandit and Bear were pretty easy going but Mittens was another story altogether. I put Bandit in with Mittens, Bear, Cookie and Benjamin with Scrappy and Brownie. Often I would swap Bear and Bandit … but not as much Bandit in with the youngins because he was getting up there in age. Mittens wasn’t having any new ferts added to her buddy system. She was happy with the original crew.
Well here is what happened in the end … Bandit passed – he died happy in his sleep at home of old age. Bear got really sick. I had to put him in our bedroom because he was having seizures from too much heat. He passed. Benjamin and Cookie were close to him but Benjamin was closer. He followed Bear. Cookie was in love with Benjamin (and myself) but I wasn’t giving her the attention she needed at the time because we were in the middle of moving. She passed of depression on New Years day 2009. Brownie was attached to both Benjamin and Cookie. She soon followed. Now, I must explain. When my fuzzies would get sick, I would put them in “sick bay” or a separate cage to keep a closer eye on them. Out they went, one by one and they never came back to Scrappy. In the end, he became resentful (I think because of the process I followed for sick ferts) withdrawn even. He soon followed Brownie. I had 5 fuzzies pass within a year of each other. Our lonely ferret Mittens (she liked it this way) was our last fuzzi. She lived the longest and was spry til the last day.
The heartbreak I suffered from loosing 5 fuzzies consecutively in one year is the reason I cannot bear another fert in my life. At least not now…
Enough sadness, one day maybe I will resume the madness that is FERRET FRENZI.
One such instance moved my husband and I to adopt 2 kits from a pet store. Their conditions being much the same with the exception of the space they had available. NONE. Ugh! You know what really gets me? Never mind – I had to delete what I wrote because it wasn’t nice. I just can not stress enough how important it is to be well informed. Unfortunately, not all pet store employees know what they are talking about. Want to be well informed? Goto the World Wide Web and search for shelters for the specific animal. Chances are they will know A LOT more than any pet store employee. Here is a handy link The American Ferret Association.
I digress. Back to my original story.
We felt really bad for these two lil kits. One was a caramel color and the other was a brownie. The caramel colored ferret we named Scrappy – boy was he ever! And the lil brownie – Brownie. She was so adorable and my husband loved her because she reminded him of our baby, Roxy.
At the time we still had Bandit, Bear, Mittens, Cookie and Benjamin so adding 2 more! ACH! It wasn’t in MY plans but what could we do? We couldn’t leave them there to whatever fate lie ahead. I definitely needed a bigger cage (preferably another cage) and hopefully my ferts would get along with the old. Bandit and Bear were pretty easy going but Mittens was another story altogether. I put Bandit in with Mittens, Bear, Cookie and Benjamin with Scrappy and Brownie. Often I would swap Bear and Bandit … but not as much Bandit in with the youngins because he was getting up there in age. Mittens wasn’t having any new ferts added to her buddy system. She was happy with the original crew.
Well here is what happened in the end … Bandit passed – he died happy in his sleep at home of old age. Bear got really sick. I had to put him in our bedroom because he was having seizures from too much heat. He passed. Benjamin and Cookie were close to him but Benjamin was closer. He followed Bear. Cookie was in love with Benjamin (and myself) but I wasn’t giving her the attention she needed at the time because we were in the middle of moving. She passed of depression on New Years day 2009. Brownie was attached to both Benjamin and Cookie. She soon followed. Now, I must explain. When my fuzzies would get sick, I would put them in “sick bay” or a separate cage to keep a closer eye on them. Out they went, one by one and they never came back to Scrappy. In the end, he became resentful (I think because of the process I followed for sick ferts) withdrawn even. He soon followed Brownie. I had 5 fuzzies pass within a year of each other. Our lonely ferret Mittens (she liked it this way) was our last fuzzi. She lived the longest and was spry til the last day.
The heartbreak I suffered from loosing 5 fuzzies consecutively in one year is the reason I cannot bear another fert in my life. At least not now…
Enough sadness, one day maybe I will resume the madness that is FERRET FRENZI.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)