Ferrets
Stinky: The Beginning:
A few years ago my sister decided she would move from FL,USA to CA,USA. She had a pet ferret named Stinky and CA,USA does not like ferrets for some reason. Well, since I am the animal person of the family and I live in PA,USA I got myself a Stinky friend. Truth be known, I had a buddy for a long time while I was growing up in upstate NY who had a couple ferrets that I enjoyed playing with. I had always told myself I would have a pet ferret one day and sure enough, it happened…. And then some…
Stinky was pretty old when he came to be friends with me, probably 5 years old, and was a wonderful pet. After a couple years with me he developed insulinoma, which is unfortunately pretty common in ferrets, but he managed to stick it out quite a while before succumbing to that horrible disease. He was a wonderful companion and my first foray into the world of ferret ownership and I will always miss him.
Benny: Ferret Math:
A funny thing happens to a lot of people when they get a ferret, it’s called “ferret math”. Ferret Math is when you have one ferret and then all of the sudden you look and there are more, and then more, and so on and so fourth. There are a lot of contributing factors to ferret math. Most of them revolve around people wanting to get rid of their ferrets, which are harder to take care of than you might initially imagine. My first foray into Ferret Math was my own doing. I wanted a “friend” for Stinky. I couldn’t play with Stinky all the time so I thought it would be an excellent idea to get him a companion. That’s when I bought Benny. Benny was gigantic compared to Stinky. He was a big oaf who loved to play and slept in the craziest positions. The pic here is Benny sleeping upside down in his hammock. Benny lived for far too short a time. He developed a mass around one of his lungs that the specialists could never seem to get a handle on and he died at 2 years old. He was such a lovie boy and it was sad to see him go. Apparently, many ferret breeders are irresponsible and have inbred these animals so much that many suffer a host of odd problems. I believe my Benny was just such a case.
Stinkerbell: Ferret Math Take 2:
I said before that the most common reason for Ferret Math is someone finds out you are a ferret person and gives you one/some. This is how we got Stinkerbell. A friends daughter had Stinkerbell and was moving and looking for a new home for her. Next thing ya know, Stinkerbell was living with us. While that sounds like a pain, in reality, Stinkerbell is fantastic and has, thus far, been the healthiest ferret in the brood. She’s currently our oldest but still exhibits plenty of ferret energy when she is out and running around. The thing that strikes me most is that compared to my other ferrets (except maybe Stinky) she is very dainty, and she has the most beautiful chocolate color.
Stinkerbell joined the family while both Stinky and Benny were still alive and after they both died, I decided I would go look at ferrets in the petstore… JUST LOOK. I wanted to LOOK and see if there was a nice companion for Stinkerbell running around somewhere, BUT I WAS ONLY GOING TO LOOK! HONEST!
R.I.P. Stinkerbell – 12/26/2010. Stinkerbell lost her long struggle with Insulinoma. I will miss her terrably. She was the stinkiest of them all 🙂
Teddy, Cake and Puff: I was only looking:
So, somehow while I was only looking I ended up buying 2 ferrets, Teddy and Cake. Teddy is a big boy and was just a cuddly teddy bear in the petstore and that’s how he got his name. I later found out that theyt must have drugged him or something because now he is rambunctious and his most favorite thing in the world is to chase you around and nip at your toes. Teddy bear indeed! Cake was another lovie ferret there and his color was like a vanilla cake, hence the name. Unfortunately, we only got to keep Cake overnight as he became very ill the next day. We took him back only to find out later that he had severe cancer and passed away a day later. That set me out in search of another ferret. I had always wanted an albino and my wife called around and found one (and only one) in the area. I went to see him at the store and found out that he had been there quite a while. For some reason, the store clerk said people didn’t want him because he was spooky looking or something like that and I also found out he was born on my birthday. He had a great personality and it seemed like a match made in petstore heaven, so Puff came home to stay.
So there you have it. Six ferrets later we still have Stinkerbell, Teddy and Puff, and they are plenty! But we’ll have to see what happens with that magical ferret math….