I am still reeling in shock at how quickly his illness progressed and how it took only 3 full days from getting a red flag alert to burying him

As some of you might now, Angus had adrenal gland disease (AGD) and had a Suprelorin implant inserted into him a year ago. He was doing great after his hair grew back and seemed his usual self – rearranging the Ugg boots and my Ugg slippers, doing his weasel wardance on the bed with his usual bouncy enthusiasm, dragging the bathmat into the sitting room and washing my face with ferret kisses every morning. He was really was such a funny little character!

Angus when he was just 7 weeks old, lying on the bed

Just by the by, I had reconstruction surgery on my right knee in December and it didn’t work, so I was practically housebound until end of March, when I had my 3rd knee replacement. Got out of hospital quickly but I couldn’t drive until last week so as Angus was losing hair on his back, I called the vet last Tuesday to arrange another Suprelorin implant for the Friday, May 11, as my (ferret) vet only works once a week now.

Angus complaining to Bonnie about the 3 girls who were picking on him

Angus always had a real thing for orange juice and whenever I sat in my chair in the mornings to drink my glass, he’d come running and practically climb up my arm to get a lick out of my glass. I was always very careful to make sure he only had 2-3 licks at the most but once I finished my glass, I’d put it down on its side on the floor and Angus would be there to lick the residue.

Wednesday morning he came for his morning OJ but he didn’t do it as enthusiastically as he normally did. He got his 2 licks and I noticed his breath smelled pretty foul! After that mistake with Seamus, my first thought was dental problems, especially after I’d seen him drinking from the dog’s dish earlier that morning and then rubbing his chin on the carpet. However, apart from that, he didn’t seem to be off-colour or ill in any way so I wasn’t too concerned. I was taking him to see Fiona on Friday so thought it wasn’t too long a wait if he did have a cavity or something else wrong with his tooth.

All the ferrets were curled up in the Chest of Drawers Hilton that afternoon – the weather had turned so they were happy to cuddle each other and sleep but that night, I kept him in our bedroom to monitor how much he was eating and drinking, as I’d notice his poop also smelled dreadful and wasn’t the usual size.

I had put small dishes of kibble, turkey mince, water and their smoothie by his hammock (a converted dog bed frame) and whenever I heard him come out of the chest of drawers, I checked but didn’t see him eating or drinking anything. In the morning, my concern was confirmed.

It might sound silly but I find that with albino ferrets, when they get sick their eyes tend to get a bit slanty and it’s pretty obvious. Angus’ eyes were like that on Thursday morning and, with his balding back, he looked so thin and unwell.

I got some turkey mince and offered it to him – he ate it but it wasn’t with any enthusiasm so I knew I had to get something more substantial from the vet. Went there and bought some electrolytes, a can of A/D formula, a small tube of Nutrigel and some syringes, then came home and made up his food.

A/D formula, egg yolk, squirt of Nutrigel and a teensy little bit of hot water to make it sloppy, all mixed together and syringed up for the boy. It looked like he had his teeth firmly closed – he really did NOT want to eat anything but I put the syringe into the pouch of his cheek and slowly squeezed the formula out. The last thing I wanted was for him to swallow that into his lungs

That went on every 2 hours and the alternate hours were for syringing electrolytes into his mouth. Again he did not want to have anything and that really worried me.

That night I was up every hour giving him his electrolytes and A/D formula but he resisted me so around midnight hubby suggested I should let Angus sleep and do the same thing myself. I reluctantly agreed with his suggestion!

Once it was time to get up, I started him on his feeding/water routine again until it was time to take him to Fiona.

She was horrified by his condition. Angus was never a big boy – he was my lean, lanky boy so when he was looking good, he was under 1kg – around 900g. When Fiona weighed Angus, she found he’d lost 200g

I mentioned the tooth business but when Fiona checked his teeth, she said there was nothing there which would cause the bad breath. Plus we both agreed that a bad tooth wouldn’t produce such foul smelling breath out of the blue.

She felt his belly and was concerned that she couldn’t feel his liver as she said most adrenal ferrets have swollen livers.

She wanted him to have an ultrasound and I said yes sure, except I couldn’t drive him to PVE in Osborne Park as my knee wasn’t up to it yet, plus the parking there was terrible and they had 5 high stairs going to the front door, which I couldn’t have managed.

Fiona, bless her, spoke to Shannon, her vet nurse, and Shannon offered to take Angus – there was only one appointment left for an ultrasound at 2.45 which Fiona snapped up, so Shannon was happy to go there after finished her shift.

She came to take Angus and I sat in my chair, twisting my hands anxiously. Shannon brought Angus back at 3.45 and said they didn’t give her any information so we had to wait till they rang and told the duty vet what was wrong with him.

When Philip came home, I asked him to please answer all phone calls – I knew that I’d just start sobbing if she said Angus’ case was terminal because I knew, in my heart, that it was.

The phone rang, Philip answered and the only thing I twigged was Philip saying “What time shall we bring him in tomorrow” so I knew there was nothing that they could do for him :’( According to the ultrasound report, Angus was suffering from either Acute or Chronic Renal Failure and, as the symptoms appeared so suddenly, it was Acute (ARF) This is a pretty rare thing to happen to ferrets but if it does, there’s nothing that can be done for them

Right away I had to check to see if the OJ licks might have caused his kidney problems. Nothing really about ferrets but there were websites which talked about OJ being lethal for male rats and … guess what … you had to give the rat one glass a day for quite a while to cause their kidneys to pack up. I was almost in tears with relief as I honestly was so scared that I was to blame for all this because I allowed my boy to have those 2-3 licks of OJ on occasion.

I wrapped him in a towel and placed him next to my side in the bed because I really didn’t want him to leave us feeling alone. There were times when I was awake, and I felt him struggle to jump down to the floor so put him down myself. There were other times when I slept through his movements. I remember putting him down on the floor around 10pm then falling into a deep sleep till midnight. When I got up, I checked his hammock and he wasn’t there.

I was in a panic, as I knew from experience dying ferrets could end up in all kinds of strange corners so I went wandering around the open areas of our house, looking for him. Nada! Zilch! I came back to the bedroom in a fit of despair and, just out of curiosity, lifted our doona (quilt) and found Angus zizzing peacefully at the foot of Philip’s side.

I brought him over to my side and he curled up happily and so we slept till around one-ish, when he started to struggle. I tried to calm him and talk him down but nothing worked, so we got the cat carrier and placed him in there. I was so hoping he’d pass quietly by morning.

No such luck! We checked the carrier and Angus was still moving – standing with all his fur puffed out together with his “poopy” tail. I asked Philip to please ring the vet and cancel the appointment we made – I knew he wouldn’t last much longer in his condition and the last thing I wanted is for him to be taken to a strange place, with vet smells, that would stress him out totally. He seemed to be totally out of it and so I hope I made the right decision and he wasn’t in pain.

He passed soon after that and I hope that he found Seamus and the rest of the gang who are up there and is now chillin’ with his buddies while waiting for me to join them.

Angus McNaughty
2006 - 2012

Well there’s no stopping Alison Parker!  After completing “Jake & Jasper, A Ferret Tale”, she is now embarking on another movie called “The Ferret Squad”.

The story is about a teenage boy, again played by Connor Stanhope, who’s moving to California with his father. The fly in the ointment is that he has a ferret called Digger and, as we all know, ferrets are illegal in California!

Boy sneaks ferret across the border and finds himself getting involved with The Ferret Squad, a group of kids who spend their summer vacation fostering illegal ferrets. Unfortunately they find out that the Animal Control (is that CDFG?) is planning to euthanize some confiscated ferrets so the kids hatch a plan to save those ferrets by getting them across the border. Their parents and law enforcement find out the plans and so are hot on their heels to do whatever they can to stop The Ferret Squad!

Sounds like an exciting movie and certainly will show ferrets in a positive light so it’d be great if we all get behind Alison and donate whatever we can to help her get this show on the road!

Donations start from as low as US$8 and go all the way up to $10,000 so I’m sure we could all dip our hands in our pockets and come up with a donation which fits our budget.

Let’s all get behind Alison and help her to produce this masterpiece

Another way all you ferret lovers can help is by going to The Ferret Squad website, scrolling down and using the share tools which are listed there. The more ferret people who see this, the quicker Alison can get the funding for her movie

For those of us living in the Antipodes, summer is well and truly among us and especially here, in Western Oz, it’s hot hot hot.

I know many ferret owners know the dangers of ferrets and heatstroke but for some of you newbies out there, please be careful if you have ferrets and they live outside in cages. Make sure their cages are under some kind of shade and if you see your ferret panting, you should freeze a couple of 2L bottles full of water, wrap them in towels and put them in the cage for your ferret to lie against. If you can put a fan outside to blow air on the cage, that’d be helpful too.

Remember that ferrets have poorly developed sweat glands so it’s difficult for them to cool off, unlike dogs or cats, who also suffer in hot weather. Add to that they also have a pretty thick coat, which is great to ward off winter chills but lousy for the summertime, even if they do moult.

Here are some signs of heatstroke to watch out for …

My guys are all free roam in the house and even inside, I find them stretched out on the wooden floors like long, hairy sausages Although Kimiko does tend to sleep half in and half out of the couch!

I guess it was too hot to be inside the sofa, wrapped up in all the wadding for the cushions! And the seat cushion looks very tacky too – poor Seamus messed on it when he was ill and my attempts to clean it wasn’t particularly successful

Anyway, hopefully all your outside ferrets are doing well and weathering this hot spell

I hope you (and your ferrets, of course!) all had a wonderful Christmas and I really do hope that this coming year will bring only happiness, peace, prosperity and good health to everyone.

I must say that reading the news makes me want to climb into bed and throw the covers over my head in despair but then one or all of the ferrets come up and and start doing their silly weasel wardance on the blanket and I just crack up.

That’s what I absolutely adore about having ferrets

No matter what goes on around you, when you watch your ferret/s in full idiotic mode, you will always laugh and life doesn’t seem as bad for that particular moment

Cheers from me and my guys …

Angus

Spook

Mojo

Kimiko

Dash

Here’s wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and I hope that 2012 will be a very happy and healthy year for you and all your ferrets.

As always, I would just remind you to please be careful during the Yuletide celebrations and watch out for your ferrets so that they don’t get into trouble

We all know how mischievous our ferrets can be and their lack of fear can sometimes lead to dangerous situations, so keep your babies safe and that’ll save your hair from going grey – LOL!

To all ferret lovers who live in the warmer climes — please remember to keep your ferrets COOL if they are in cages outside. You don’t want any of them suffering from heat stress which will result in you making an (expensive) visit to the vet over the Christmas holidays.

Oh, and don’t forget … for you Northern ferret owners, if you think you have anything resembling the flu, please keep from breathing on or kissing your ferrets until you feel 100% again

Mele kalikimaka from me and my guys to you and yours!

Hrmmmm, let me contemplate that question for a moment!

Yes, I think it’s the fault of the owners who have grown too complacent about their ferrets! LOL!

I heard a noise in the kitchen earlier this morning and when I clumped (I’m on 2 crutches after my knee operation) to the doorway, I was confronted with this sight …

I should have guessed that after Dash’s little game of tip the box that the buzz might have been spread around to the others and they’d think it was a mighty fine game to play, especially since mommy dearest can’t really bend down too well to sweep the mess up

Of course when I came with dustpan and brush in hand, the ferrets thought this was just the best fun ever so they were weasel wardancing in the peanuts, which made them fly around the kitchen even more! Augh!!!

Yes, I take complete responsibility for the mess

I should have told long-suffering hubby to put the peanuts in a plastic tub rather than the cardboard box he had them in but I was complacent and so suffered the consequences!

The ferrets had a lot of fun dancing and dooking on the floor with the peanuts and, I must confess, I had a lot of fun watching them do that!

Ferrets! Gotta love ‘em

Some of you might remember that I made a dig box for my guys a few years ago which was a mega fail. I’d got a bag of aquarium gravel and filled one of our grandkids’ toy boxes with it. I honestly thought that the ferrets would love it, as they were always scratching around inside the furniture.

Well … they jumped into the box, they had a teensy scrabble around and that was that. No more interest at all I left the box there for a couple of days and finally admitted defeat.

A few weeks ago I saw a cute video of ferrets playing in a box with biodegradable packing peanuts so I thought I’d give the dig box another go!

Found a huge bag of bio packing peanuts on eBay and ordered it. It came the same day I was heading off to hospital to get my knee fixed, December 6, so while I was away, my long-suffering husband poured some of the peanuts into a big box and took a video of the result …

Spook, my BEW, looks like he was woken up while sleeping in the peanuts and while the others hopped in and out, they certainly don’t look like they’re having much fun with that box!

The carnage at the end of the video was of the ferrets showing their displeasure of me not being there! Apparently for 3 days in a row, when Philip came home, he found all the books in the bottom shelf of our bookcase on the floor. He’d patiently put them all back and the next day found them tossed out again. After the 3rd day he got fed up with it so once he put all the books back, he banged a wedge into the books so that the ferrets couldn’t get them out again.

The day after that, he came home and found that the ferrets had emptied all the books on the bottom shelf of my cookbook bookcase in the kitchen! LOL!

Anyway, back to the dig box … when I came home on Sunday, I was hoping to see some interest in it but there wasn’t any until yesterday.

Yesterday was when Mojo came up with a new game in the dig box. She’d jump in, grab a peanut, scramble out and stash the peanut in a corner. She did that about 4-5 times until Kimiko came along. They touched noses and I assume they had a telepathic conversation whereby Mojo told Kimiko what she was doing so Kimiko jumped into the box and helped Mojo remove the peanuts one-by-one and stash them in the same corner Why didn’t I have my camera with me … it was so funny to watch them!!

It wasn’t long before they got bored with the game and toodled off and then it was Dash’s turn to invent a new game…

Stand up on the outside of the dig box, pull hard with both paws and tip the box over. Get in when the box is on its side and scrabble about as much as you can to make sure more peanuts are flung out of the box onto the floor.

When your mother comes along with the dustpan and brush, call in the reserves and make sure you all do everything you can to hinder her from sweeping up the peanuts!! *rolls eyes*

Ferrets having fun … who could ask for more?

No, it’s not a trick question I seriously wonder if they do!

My Mojo has totally broken the mould I had for albino ferrets. I always considered them to be wonderfully smoochy, loving little things, then along came Mojo!

I’ve never known a ferret to be such a Jekyll and Hyde She’ll cover my face with kisses some days and play with me like I’m her best buddy. Then, in a matter of moments, she’ll change. If I pick her up to get her to kiss me again, she’ll turn her face away and that’ll be that. No more kisses from the little madam.

Other times we’ve had fun playing then I come to the sitting room and flop in my chair to watch TV or use the laptop, she’ll come to me, jump up and sink her teeth into my inner elbow then run away.

What’s with the attitude, I wonder?

Like I tell people, “The more I know ferrets, the more I know I don’t know!”

Sounds like a statement Donald Rumsfeld would make, doesn’t it, but boy, does it apply to Mojo

However, back to my albino girl.

I wrote about my concern that she might have adrenal disease last month. After noticing that hair was missing from the underside of her tail, I then noticed that she was losing hair on her belly …

It reminded me of how Seamus’ tail looked last year and, as the ultrasound and biopsy didn’t find anything to worry about for him, I decided to not take Mojo to my vet and see how she went.

She still has about an inch of no hair on the underside of her tail but I’m relieved to see that the fur on her stomach has grown back, so it can’t be anything connected to her adrenal glands.

I guess it could be seasonal and – who knows – maybe she’s moody because she’s annoyed about what her hair looks like LOL!

A ferret friend sent me a link to an article in Pet Wiki about new advances in dog cancer, pointing me to the paragraph written by Dr Ananya Mandal in June 2010, which said …

“Queensland, Australia scientists have discovered a drug to cure cancer that has effectively worked in animals and is to be tried on humans in the next phase of trials. This drug is plant-derived and is called EBC-46 for trial purposes. The plant from which it is obtained is found in the Australian tropical rainforest. The drug has shown to reduce inoperable tumors in 150 dogs, cats and horses and a ferret to a significant extent. The drug was developed over the past six years from the seed of a rainforest plant found in the Atherton Tablelands. Scientists had cultivated their own plantation of the plant since forming the company QBiotics Limited in 2004.

Dr. Gordon hoped that EBC-46 would be available for veterinary markets in Australia and New Zealand next year. Thereafter initial trials on very small number of healthy adult humans would commence.”

As you can imagine, my eyes lit up when I saw the statement that EBC-46 reduced an inoperable tumour in a FERRET!

The company which produced this drug is called QBiotics and I’ll be writing to them to see if they can let me know what cancer the ferret had. The website says that the drug treats “solid tumours”.

I need to check with my vet if I have it right but I googled the question “Is insulinoma a “solid tumor” in the pancreas+ferret” and from the links which pop up, it would seem that it is. Lymphoma also came up as being a solid tumour but I couldn’t confirm what the tumours on the adrenal glands are called.

However, if this EBC-46 is available to vets now, and if they really do shrink tumours, then it can only be a great thing for our ferrets, don’t you think?

Imagine not having a feeling of dread flow over you when you see your ferret staring blankly into space or if it’s diagnosed with lymphoma if you know that there might just be something to help your ferret beat those awful cancers and live to a ripe old age.

I need to find out more and will share whatever news I come across so please watch this space

I was looking at Mojo the other day and realised her tail looked like it was losing hair just at the base. Can you see what I mean here …

Her fur looks just a little bit less at the very top of her tail compared with half in inch below. My heart sank. Having thought Seamus had adrenal problems last year, then finding out that Angus definitely had that disease this year and now Mojo?

I turned her on her back and saw her bald patch …

She’s only 2 years old, for crying out loud, way too young to have adrenal problems so I’m hoping that the bald patch is due to something else. No idea what but I am so hoping it’s not AGD.

Poop!

It’s been a terrible two weeks

Seamus seemed to pick up a bit after his bad teeth were removed but after a few days it started to get harder to get him to eat. I thought that maybe his mouth was hurting him so I made an appointment to see the vet on Tuesday. She checked his mouth and said everything was looking good but just to be on the safe side, I should go back to giving him his antibiotics twice a day.

I started him that again and Seamus seemed to pick up a bit but a couple of days later he wouldn’t eat on his own so I was back to syringing both the formula and smoothy into his mouth. I also noticed his left eye was looking a bit weepy so I made another appointment to see the vet.

It was Friday morning when I took him and my vet found that his eye was full of pus and that infection had gone into his nasal cavity so she said she’d give him a series of stronger antibiotics. She gave him a shot of Baytril and loaded up 3 more injections and gave them to me to give him one a day over the weekend.

On Friday night I kept on waking up every time I heard Seamus moving around and putting him in front of his smoothy, which he lapped up very energetically. The next morning he was eating his A/D formula, lapping up the smoothy, both of which had supplements mixed in to help his immune system and make him stronger.

Saturday morning we took him to the clinic so that Barbara, the vet nurse, could show Philip how to inject the Baytril subcutaneously. His eye was a bit gummy again but Barbara cleaned it up and even she agreed that Seamus was looking much better. We were both cautiously optimistic that he’d pull through this crisis.

Then it was Saturday night and that wasn’t so good. When I heard Seamus moving around I’d offer him the smoothy but this time he wasn’t interested. I was hoping that he’d eaten too much during the day so although I was concerned, I wasn’t overly worried.

However Sunday morning it was obvious that he was definitely not interested in eating anything. He wouldn’t touch the smoothy and when I tried to syringe the A/D formula into his mouth, most of it dribbled out. As the day grew longer, he grew weaker and I realised that this would not have a happy ending.

I had an appointment to take him for a check up with the vet on Monday morning and I knew that he’d be having his final injection if he lasted that long. I kept urging him to let go and join his friends at the Bridge but he kept fighting to stay. I held him all day, stroking him, and he spent the night sleeping between us in our bed then, at 6am, he took his final breath

I was a total mess yesterday and was completely wracked with guilt about the whole thing. All I could think of the whole day was a litany of “if only“.

If only I had realised Seamus had a tooth problem.

If only I could turn the clock back to that point and this time do things differently.

Dan, my youngest daughter admonished me, telling me it was okay to feel unhappy and mourn his loss but the guilt thing was unproductive. She told me to mentally assign the guilt I’m feeling to a little box, shut the lid, tie a string around it and put the box in a drawer and close it.

It’s wise advice but not so easy to do

Seamus O'Trouble 2006-2011

Well I hang my head in shame

For the past 17 years I haven’t had any problems with my ferrets’ teeth. In fact, my vet has always complimented me on the great condition of all my guys’ teeth so when Seamus stopped eating his kibble, it never occurred to me that he might have problems with his tooth, or teeth even!

I wrote about Seamus’ glaucoma a couple of months ago and for those of you who didn’t read the article, you can see his blind right eye again in this photo …

Stay with me here – there’s reason to my madness talking about glaucoma when the title is about dental problems

About 6 weeks ago it occurred to me that I didn’t see him munching on his kibble much and so mentioned it to Philip. He said he’d seen him eating it so I didn’t worry until a few weeks later when it seemed like he was looking a bit thin.

I give them all a daily smoothy and their evening “treat” is a plate of turkey mince which they have at night. I noticed that Seamus was gobbling (pun intended ) down his turkey and seemed to enjoy his smoothy and I had a passing thought then that maybe he might have a problem with a tooth which was preventing him from eating the kibble.

I lifted his lips to see if I could see any bad teeth but I couldn’t see anything which raised any alarms. Then, when I put him down and saw him playing in that blue bucket playground we have for the ferrets and opening the tops of the empty plastic bottles we put in there for them, the bad tooth thought flittered out of my mind as quickly as it came in.

Seamus seemed to have a couple of good days then he’d have a quiet day, and that seemed like a routine so I went on the computer and went to see if I could find out what might be the cause of his odd behaviour. Naturally the search term included “glaucoma” and what I found freaked me out …

Lymphoma
A common type of cancer in ferrets, which affects the orbit (rather than the eye itself), is retrobulbar lymphoma. In this disease, the tumor grows behind the eyeballs and pushes them out of their sockets.

Retrobulbar lymphoma and glaucoma are easily confused, according to Burgess.

That was it!

I was convinced that my poor old man had retrobulbar lymphoma and not glaucoma! AND … as I didn’t want him to go through another ultrasound and biopsy like he had last year, I decided I would just increase his supplements to try and fight it.

This went on for 3 weeks and over the course of those weeks, it was getting harder and harder for me to get him to eat. It was also during this time that I noticed that his breath smelled but … of course, being convinced he had a cancerous tumour behind his eye, I automatically thought the bad breath was due to the cancer invading his kidneys! Oy vey … how great is my ability to imagine the worst possible thing!

I bought A/D formula and mixed it with chicken stock to make it slushy and added Pedialyte infant multivits and had to syringe it into him just so that he got food into him.

Two weekends ago he totally refused to open his mouth for me, he looked so anorexic and dehydrated and I noticed he had a white film in his mouth which smelled dreadful so I rang my vet in a panic and raced him down, absolutely convinced that this was his final trip.

My vet, Fiona, managed to stick a needle into his back to pump saline solution subcutaneously to rehydrate him while she looked in his mouth. She found that he had an abscess in his gum, as well as a cracked tooth right at the back which I hadn’t been able to see when I lifted his lips.

She pumped him full of painkillers and antibiotics and said that once he was better, she had to remove that cracked tooth so ordered me to get him better asap. I brought him back for a follow-up check-up 2 days later and Fiona was pleased to see that he’d gained 100g. She told me to keep doing what I was doing so that he’d be fit for the procedure which was planned for today.

I doubled the supplements in his smoothy and kept on syringing the A/D broth into his mouth every hour on the hour for the past week. Took him to the vet this morning hoping that he’d get through the procedure without any dramas.

Got the phone call this afternoon to say everything went well and I could come and collect him. Phew – talk about a sigh of relief!

He had THREE teeth taken out – even my vet was surprised that his teeth were in such bad condition – and we thought that maybe Seamus’ party trick of getting hold of any kind of bottle and taking the tops off could have been the cause of all his problems.

This is his party trick ….

So … if you notice ANY change in your ferret’s eating habits, please don’t be a dill like me and assume that it’s some dreadful cancer which is causing the problem.

Think bad tooth first and foremost and take your little friend down to the vet for a check up and save weeks of discomfort for your little guy and a whole lot of stress for you Gah!

Back in May I came across this soap made by the Goat Mountain Soap Company and couldn’t resist ordering it!

The order was mailed on May 24 but, as it happened, the Canadian postal service went on strike at or around the time my order was dispatched so it took a while to get down under.

I was beginning to fret about when I might get the bars of soap but then … lo and behold … today the mailman left the packet on my doorstep

It’s such an unusual present so I’m really looking forward to giving a bar to each of my ferret friends. I’m sure they’ll love it

Mind you, one thing I do have to ask the company is why they picked that particular name for the soap … Ferret Farts? One thing I can say with my hand across my heart is that in 17 years of being owned by a ferret, I have never heard one of mine fart! LOL!

We had two of the grandkids over last weekend so brought out the IKEA kitchen, together with the supermarket store and other toys we had. As we are having another kidlet over this weekend, we left the kitchen in the sitting room.

When we let the ferrets out last Sunday, they were fascinated with the kitchen and were all sniffing around. In fact, one of the bottom doors was opened and Angus went inside to investigate and Kimiko managed to shut the door on him. It was so funny to see him peering out through that glass door and, of course, the video or the still cameras weren’t close by to catch the event!

So when Dash decided to check out the kitchen this morning, I had the camera handy so was able to take a few photos of him tap dancing on the hotplate and snooping in the sink.

NOTE … this is a TOY kitchen. Do NOT try to put your ferret on a real hotplate or in a proper sink at home

This makes me FURIOUS! Utterly and absolutely FURIOUS!

I was looking at my ferret FB page when I saw a post from an English ferret owner saying …

“This was one of three kits that Cathy Wareing has rescued from a shop called Brunos in Billing Northampton. They were charging £39.95 each. Clearly two of these kits are too young to be away from their mother. The third kit is slightly older. They were in a small cage with no bedding, just a cardboard tube and kibble that was too big from them to eat.”

Look at the photo of one of the little kits …

Photo © Cathy Wareing/Mia Baker

Why on earth did that pet store owner accept those kits from the breeder to sell – that was atrocious – but even worse, why did that pet store owner put those kits in a small cage with no bedding and give them hard kibble to eat. He should be prosecuted for animal abuse and his wretched pet store closed down!

God it really infuriates me how breeders or some pet stores just don’t care about their animals.

Fortunately the lady who saw those babies took them and from what I understand, they are all doing well and improving under her care. Thank God for that!

When I was helping out with Ferret Rescue back in the mid-90s, we got a call from a young girl who bought a ferret kit but her mother wouldn’t let her keep it, so she handed it in to me. The little silvermitt girl was about 5 weeks old – a tiny little thing – and she was crying as she missed her mother.

I called her Marshmallow, as she sort of looked like one when she was curled up, and she was the sweetest but most neurotic ferret ever

You can see from that photo how tiny she was and absolutely too young to be separated from her mother.

Good breeders know that kits should be left with their mother until they are 12 weeks old ideally. This gives the mother a chance to teach the babies whatever they need to know to make them into happy and socialised little animals when they go to their new homes and also by that time, mom is ready to say goodbye to her boisterous babies.

Of course some people sell them at an earlier age, like when the kits are 8-10 weeks old. If the kits are going to old time ferret owners who have other ferrets in their houses then it’s okay to let them go at that age. But they should NEVER be sold any younger than that – NEVER!

I’ve been told that some jills actually get so depressed if their kits are taken from them at too early an age that it could kill them so please, if you breed ferrets then be a responsible breeder and keep those kits until they’re old enough to leave their mother.

I get a lot of emails from new and old-time ferret owners at my site asking me various questions about their ferrets, mainly asking for advice on what to do when their ferret is sick or asking questions about breeding.

Then a couple of years ago I read about Ferret Health Advancement at MSU.  Dr Matti Kiupel was doing a lot of research in a number of ferret illnesses, like coronaviruses, rotaviruses & coccidiosis. He’s also working with David Wilson researching the prognostication and carcinogenesis of adrenal cortical neoplasms. But, of course, with all things, money is necessary to further the research for these diseases so the department also has a page for donations.

It was soon after the ’08 financial crash happened and we had been hit quite badly by it. How on earth could I help them when we weren’t flush with money.

I posed the question to Webgrampy (aka my husband Philip) and after a think, he thought of a win win solution.

Ferret owners constantly write to me asking for advice about various medical problems and other things. Why don’t we find out what they wanted to hear from vets and get a recording of the vets’ advice so that they can hear the information straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak

WG put a survey up and asked the ferret owners out there to let us know what specific questions they had for the vets.  There was a great response, so then WG hunted out the vets and asked them if they’d be happy to be interviewed and give their answers to what people wanted to know.

Most of the vets contacted were happy to help out so WG picked out three and arranged times to call them.  Since we were down under and the vets were in the States, he had to get up around 2-3am to speak to them when they were off work but it was well worth the effort.

Then he had a long interview with Dianne Rohowicz, a long time friend and president of WAFFS, asking all the questions people wanted to know about how to breed ferrets.

All the interviews were put on paper by yours truly and we’re offering the set for sale so that we can donate a good portion of the money to the Ferret Health Advancement people.  We also gave the interviews to Dianne so that WAFFS members could get them and for the money to help the society.

The interviews go through a lot of information …

• Feeding ferrets (what they need, and what will kill them!)
• Breeding ferrets
• The major ailments – Insulinoma, Adrenal Disease, other cancers (what to look for and how to treat them)
• Parasites – inside and outside (that’s the ferret, not your house…)
• Keeping ferrets with other pets
• Keeping your ferrets safe in your house (there’s a heap of dangerous things you may not have
thought about)
• And, protecting your house from your ferrets!
• Basic physiology of the domestic ferret
• Ferret poop – colours and textures

And, if you don’t have a ferret savvy vet nearby, there’s also information from one of the vets to give to your vet to help him with ferret stuff.

There’s over 2 ½ hours of information there. It only costs $37 and you’ll know that a considerable percentage of that will go to FHA@MSU to help with their research into ferret diseases.

Win Win!

You can even listen to some excerpts, just so that you can hear just how good this material is.

So, go NOW to www.FerretExperts.com and listen for yourself. You won’t be disappointed!

Life is never dull when you have a ferret (or six) in the house

K-Mart have a toy sale on and I saw some interesting things to get for the kidlets (grandchildren). We already had an Ikea kitchen unit for the littlies and I had also found some supermarket-type boxes, a cash register and other things so that when they came around, we’d pretend to cook or to shop.

My eyes lit up when I saw a “supermarket” in the K-Mart catalog, as well as a shopping trolley and boxes of cereal, etc, to go into said trolley. I also saw a “vet trolley”, complete with X-rays and stethoscope amongst other things, and I thought it’d be fun to get the kids interested in that. I certainly could do with a vet in the family so I thought it was never too early to plant the seed into their growing minds – LOL!

The boxes sat in the spare room for a week until I finally got my act together and decided to assemble them. Brought them into the sitting room, together with all the old toy boxes so that I could put everything in order so that I knew where all the toys were as Gracie and Alex were coming to stay over on Saturday night.

Well … all that noise of me banging and crashing boxes down in the sitting room woke the ferrets and they just had to come and see what I was doing and, of course, to help me in any way they could

My ferrets investigating all the toy boxes I brought out to assemble

Dash in the supermarket box

Spook and Dash checking out the box

But then they realised that, hey, there was an even more interesting thing to check out! I had some plastic drawers which I was putting toys into and y’all know how ferrets love to go into drawers, don’t you! LOL!

First one, then the other, then another one trying to get into a small drawer already occupied by someone. I was giggling for a long time afterwards just watching them squeeze into the drawer or bouncing in and out of boxes on the floor … a messy sitting room but hey, aren’t we just slaves to our furry friends

Alison, the producer of Jake & Jasper: A Ferret Tale, emailed me at my site to ask me to help promote her film and also asking for donations.

When I saw what the film was about, I was happy to put some money in and I hope some of you ferret owners who read this will feel the same way.

I am fed up with the negative press ferrets get – the poor babies are always linked with being “vicious” and “smelly” and there are too few movies which show how wonderful they really are, and how much love, joy and comfort they give to their owners.

I’m hoping this movie will change the perception a lot of people have about ferrets. However, having said that, I really don’t want to see lots of people rushing out to get ferrets for their kids without researching all the pros and cons about having one.

I remember that Alison joined our forum last year and showed off a commercial she made starring her own two ferrets, Falcor and Frisco. She obviously knows what it’s like to have ferrets and I’m sure she’ll do a good job of showing that off in her film.

Jake and Jasper - A Ferret Tale

Full Synopsis
Struggling to cope with the recent death of his mother, young Jake Tyler retreats from his family and the world at large. After being involved in a violent fight with some older boys at school, he winds up in the principal’s office with his father who is told that Jake might benefit from professional help. Unfortunately, Jake’s father has been unable to help himself through the loss of his wife. When not neglecting his son and daughter as a result, he’s furious with them. Jesse (Jake’s sister) is so fed up with her selfish father that she moves out of the house but not without leaving her pet ferret, Jasper, to keep her brother company.

Jake & Jasper become fast friends as the two develop a strong bond. Yet just as this companionship seems on the verge of prying Jake from his shell, his father threatens to take Jasper away. With the thought of losing his best pal, Jake decides to run away from home and the two get lost in a nearby forest. Then when darkness falls Jake & Jasper not only lose each other in the woods, they nearly lose their lives.

Oooh, I just read the synopsis … I’m sure there’s a happy ending but I also hope it’s not going to be a tear jerker! I always seem to cry when I watch movies with animals in them!!

Jack & Jasper also have a Facebook page … if you want to check it out

Good luck, Alison! I hope everything goes really well for your film

Well there you go …. the police have arrested the parents of that poor baby and now we learn that they weren’t at home at the time of the tragedy.

The news article said that the police crime lab had found human blood in the ferret’s stomach but there is NO mention of bits of fingers found in its stomach. I think that means that the ferret did not, in fact, chew the fingers off the baby and was totally and utterly unjustly accused of that.

Of course there’d be blood in its stomach if it licked the blood off the baby but I’m sure that if there had been human flesh found in its stomach, that would have been in the crime lab’s report.

I’m not a betting person but I’d put money on one, if not both, of the dogs having bitten the baby’s fingers off. The father probably realised that the dog/s did it and so put all the blame on the ferret, because he didn’t give a toss about the poor animal.

I am disappointed that the authorities haven’t exonerated the poor little ferret. Wouldn’t it be the proper thing to say that the ferret was innocent of what it was accused of having done? Posthumously would be better than never so I think that’s wishful thinking on my part, as would be the hope that the authorities would charge the parents with animal abuse too.

At the beginning of this year I noticed that Seamus’ right eye was bulging slightly so we went to my vet for a check-up. The diagnosis was glaucoma There’s nothing that can be done for that and, as a blind ferret is not a handicapped ferret, it didn’t upset me too much to hear that he had it.

Chucky, my first male, developed cataracts when he was about 6 years old and it didn’t stop him from racing around the house. I guess if there was something on the floor which shouldn’t have been there he might have bumped into it but for the most part, he was pretty good at navigating around the house.

He was such a cutie – I remember he used to like running backwards. Yes, backwards! Why? No idea, but he’d stick his tail out so it acted like an antenna or something and stopped him from piling into furniture or the wall! LOL! He really was a funny character

Back to Seamus … since being diagnosed, his eye has gone blind, as you can see from these photos …

You can see his right eye is grey, and that’s how a ferret’s eye looks if he has cataracts or is blind from glaucoma.

There’s an interesting article about eye problems for ferrets here which is worth reading.

The scary thing is that if your ferret has retrobulbar lymphoma, it can be mistaken for glaucoma so it’s always very important that if you suspect something’s wrong with your ferret’s eye that you take it to the vet to get checked. God forbid you think the bulging eye is only glaucoma and it turns out to be cancerous

Little things happen and with ferrets, so often little things make us scratch our heads and wonder why is this happening.

Such was the case of Kimiko on Sunday morning!

I’d given the ferrets their smoothy and, as you might be aware, I’ve been adding just a small bit of coconut oil butter to their smoothy for a little bit of added oomph. The ferrets all love it and it’s totally benign so apart from making their poop smell like coconut (!), it doesn’t hurt them to eat it.

It was about half-an-hour after I gave them the smoothy that I noticed Kimiko behaving strangely. She was making odd little squeaking noises and was running under bits of furniture. This is something I’ve noticed that all ferrets do when they want to throw up but I couldn’t understand why she was doing that. The smoothy was the same as they’ve been having for a while now and there was nothing else that she could have eaten which could have caused her distress, or so I thought!

This was going on for quite some time and I was beginning to worry that she must have eaten something which was causing a blockage in her gut. It was the only thing I could imagine that was causing her to behave this way.

Before panicking and rushing her to the vet, I decided to give her a strip of furball ointment to see if that would shift whatever it was which was making her want to throw up.

Could I find the furball ointment? Could I heck! It had been in the top of the chest of drawers in our bedroom but during a tidy-up session, I thought I’d put it in a more appropriate place. Checked the box in the laundry where I keep most of things for our pets but it wasn’t there.

I was getting quite annoyed with myself so asked my dear husband if he’d seen the furball ointment by some strange chance. “Wasn’t it on the wardrobe shelf?” he said.

I checked and nope, it wasn’t there. All this time Kimiko was squeaking, sounding breathless and was obviously wanting to throw up but unable to do so.

Trying not to stress, I went through the chest of drawers again and, lo and behold, it was where I originally looked! Thank goodness for that! I put a small amount on my finger and stuck it under Kimiko’s nose, and she reluctantly took some.

Went outside to speak to hubby dearest and told him about the drama which had been going on and he said, “Oh, it must have been the ikan bilis that upset her.”

Ikan bilis?? Who gives a ferret ikan bilis, pray tell?!!!

Ikan bilis are tiny little anchovies which are dried and salted and used in Malaysia as small chow, to have with drinks or just to snack on. Hubby has the occasional hankering for them so we have a jarful in the kitchen.

“What?!! Why in God’s name did you give her ikan bilis?” I shrieked like an old shrew.

“I didn’t,” he replied placidly, “I gave one to Zac but he dropped it and Kimiko stole it from under his nose.”

Ah hah!!! Bad mama for jumping to conclusions

So … a word of warning. If you like ikan bilis, please make sure you don’t let your ferret get hold of one as it certainly ain’t the best treat for them – LOL!!

BTW, Kimiko was fine after she had the furball ointment as it must have helped the little fishy slip out of her easily!

It certainly isn’t boring being a ferret owner ….!!!

As you know, I’m giving both Angus and Seamus a daily dose each of DHA Omega and it’s obviously helping Seamus, since I can see how he’s perked up since I’ve been giving it to him. Angus has always been full of beans so I can’t state categorically that it’s helping him but I hope it is shrinking his adrenal tumours so that he’ll be with me for many more years!

Since then, I’ve been told about coconut oil being good for pets.

I got an email from another ferret owner with a link to virgin coconut oil (VCO) so I did some research about it. Certainly there are lots of websites lauding the healing properties of VCO for their dogs and cats, helping with allergies, with fleas, and other problems, but I couldn’t find anything about VCO and ferrets.

Well if it was good for dogs and cats, why on earth wouldn’t it be good for ferrets too?

I bought a jar of Melrose organic coconut oil butter from Malaga Market, which is near to where we live, and then, when I looked up VCO online, I saw a bottle of Bananban Virgin Coconut Oil Pet Tonic Supplement so I ordered that as well.

I think I’m fairly intelligent when it comes to most things but I must say I was a real dummy with the Pet Tonic Supplement. If you click on the links, you’ll see that the Melrose jar looks like it’s full of lard – thick whitish/yellow waxy solidified coconut “butter”. Right? Right!

Now click on the Banaban link, and you’ll see a nice clear bottle of coconut oil in the display photo.

I actually thought that the Banaban product would come to me looking like the photo … DUH ME! When it was delivered, sure enough – the bottle was full of … you guessed it … thick whitish/yellow waxy solidified coconut “butter”!!

At least with the jar of “butter” I can get to it with a spoon. I’m still scratching my head wondering how I’m going to get that stuff out of the thin necked bottle

But enough about bottles …. there are some interesting articles about the benefits of VCO for pets.

• Animals and the Healing Power of Coconut Oil (Nature Pacific)
• Keep gallons of coconut oil in your cupboards (K9 Perspective)

And here’s something from a vet about VCO where she actually mentions ferrets – YAY \o/

I’m giving all my guys 1/4 teaspoon of that coconut butter in their smoothy and Spook gets a special 1/4 teaspoon of VCO, which I heat up for 30 seconds in the microwave, let cool then give to him.

His coat is very coarse and rough and I noticed he’s got blackheads on his tail …

Almost a year ago I heard from another Aussie ferret owner, who is also a vet nurse, that her ferret had a rat’s tail and she got “Ungvita”, which helped to clean the tail and to regrow the hair.

I’ll see how I got with the VCO before I reach for the Ungvita but will let you know how Spook’s tail looks

Stay tuned!!!

You know that kid’s book called “Where’s Wally?“? Well, I think I should write a kid’s book called “Angus and the Ugg Boot“.

Angus does NOT like Philip’s Ugg boots to be left on the floor – they have to been hidden.

Mind you, I’ve told Angus that he’s not a very good hider of Ugg boots as I always seem to find them – LOL!

Here’s a photo of Angus inspecting the boot while Mojo looks like she’s not interested to be part of the theft…
Mind you, Mojo doesn’t mind offering some advice to Angus as he starts dragging the boot to the first hiding place, our wardrobe …
And in this photo, you can almost hear her saying to Angus, “They’ll find that boot there, you silly boy!”

They must have had a discussion about the best place to hide daddy’s boot because when I came back into the bedroom, I found Angus and the boot in the chest of drawers!! What an clot that boy is

It’s lucky for us that the boots are too big to stash but my Ugg slippers are a totally different story! I can’t find them anywhere so I reckon Angus must have hidden them under the camphorwood chest.

Being an old crock, I can’t kneel down to see what’s under the chest so I got a broom to see if I could brush my slippers out. Well! Talk about a ferret magnet! They all came out to play with the broom as I tried to swish it backwards and forwards under there so I gave up.

I guess I’ll just have to walk around with chilly feet until Philip comes home and gets my slippers for me

Oh the joys of ferret ownership!!! I love it!

I love researching stuff about ferrets  

I was wondering if coconut oil was good for ageing ferrets and, lo and behold, Google produced a link to the Goat Mountain Soap Company which has ….

ta dah ….

Fffferret Ffffffarts Ssssoap!!!!!

What a brilliant present for us to give our family and friends, don’t you think? Quirky, silly and useful! Hey, what more could you ask for as a present

Now to find out if they ship their products to Oz!

Dash, before his operation …

and Dash’s shaved area after his castration …

And the lovely Kimiko before going to the vet …

and my baby’s shaved belly after being spayed …

When I dropped the little ones off in the morning, I was told to pick them up at 4pm unless someone called me to ask me to come at a different time, so I duly arrived at the vet’s surgery at 4 and told a new vet nurse I was here to pick up my ferrets.

She looked a bit surprised and asked if someone had called me to pick them up. I said no, I was told to come at 4 unless I heard differently so she just said that they were both very sleepy still from their operation so she’d go and see how they are.

I was a bit worried that she might tell me to go away and come back in another hour but when she came out, she had my cat carrier and another nurse followed her with another carrier. Then Karen, the morning nurse who knows me quite well, came out and said that apparently Dash was being a real nuisance and doing his caveman routine on Kimiko, who did not appreciate it, so they had to separate them.

The new vet nurse was very kind and gave me a lot of information about what to do with my ferrets when I got home and I nodded politely and agreed to do as I was told

So … in the car the duo were very undynamic but once I opened the front door and put the carrier down in the hallway, they both sprang to life and started scratching at the bars to be let out. I took them to their food, which they ignored, and I watched them slipping and sliding on the floor, trying to make a line for the bedroom.

It really was so adorable to see them both weaving like drunken sailors – my poor little babies!

It’ll take 2 weeks for all the hormones to fizzle out of Dash’s system and that fortnight can’t come too soon! This morning I had to shake him off Kimiko’s back as he seemed to be determined to “have his way” with her!! Poor Kimiko

Take a look …. don’t you think he’s looking a whole lot better?

This is the before shot, taken a couple of weeks ago …

and this photo was taken this morning …

As you can see, he’s lost that translucent skin but now he has a yellowish tinge to both his skin and his fur. I don’t know if that is due to the fact that his hair is growing back slowly or if it’s because of the DHA Omega I’m giving him.

I say that because, in the past, when I’ve had a ferret with a shaved belly from an ultrasound or whatever, the skin looks a bit blue when the fur starts coming through. I know it’s different because in Angus’ case his hair fell out but, as I’ve never experienced this before, I don’t know what colour the skin goes when the new hair starts sprouting.

As I say in my tag line, “The more I know ferrets, the more I know I don’t know“! It sounds like something Donald Rumsfeld would say but it’s true. Even after 17 years of owning these gorgeous animals, I’m finding out new things about them, and certainly haven’t stopped learning new things about them either

But I’m convinced that the DHA Omega is helping both the old boys.

With Seamus I have visual proof – he’s so perky now and gives back as good as he gets when the youngsters jump on him and start annoying him.

Angus hasn’t slowed down since he was diagnosed with AGD but I’m hoping that the DHA Omega will shrink his tumour and make it all go away so that he won’t need to have another implant next year when this one runs out

Stay tuned …..!

No doubt you all have seen the story in yesterday’s English newspaper, the Telegraph, saying that it was “insulting to call our animals, ‘pets’” and we should, instead, refer to them as ‘companion animals’!

I had to laugh.

Why would anyone want to put such time and effort into such a frivolous study, pray tell?

I mean, I guess it’s great that the director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics has given such deep thought about how insulting it is for our animals to be referred to as pets; and how wild animals get quite upset about being termed as “wildlife” instead of “free living”. Gosh!! Maybe that’s why lions and hippos try to eat us when they come across us in the veld because they know all about our insulting terminology!

However — back to my ferrets….

I’ve apologised to each and every one of them for being such an unthinking person and referring to them as my pets or even, occasionally, as … shock horror … my critters!!

I’m very relieved to report that my guys were very gracious and understanding and they all forgave me for my oversight. Even Zac the dog forgave me – oh joy, oh rapture!

They told me not to sweat the small stuff and said they’re quite happy to be referred to as my pets and critters as long as I don’t stop giving them lots of TLC, or lots of good food, and to make sure I kept them in the manner to which they’ve grown accustomed

Phew! What a relief! I don’t know what I would have done if they hadn’t forgiven me – LOL!

But there is something which I’d appreciate if the Rev’d Professor Andrew Linzey could clear up for me in the next edition of the Journal of Animal Ethics.

What I’d really like to know is what happens when all us animal – but especially ferret – lovers meet up with all our buddies at the Rainbow Bridge. Will there be a division in the pathway to Heaven? Like one sign directing all owners … oops, sorry … I mean “human carers” and their “companion animals” to go in one direction while people who never liked or had animals are instructed to take the other path?

I know certain members of my family, who’ve never appreciated the wonderfulness of my ferrets, would probably find that being with them for eternity would constitute living in hell! Bwahahahahaha!!!!

Who’d have thought!!

I bought this blue tub on wheels a few months ago to bring my shopping in from the garage into the house.
A not-so-expensive buy from our local Bunnings store.

The ferrets used to jump and and out of the tub but that was it, until recently. When I came home from shopping one day, all the youngsters were at the front door to greet me and, to distract them from racing outside, I put the plastic bags down on the floor in the hallway and went to the kitchen. When I came back to pick the parcels up, the ferrets were all jazzed up from the crackling noise from the bags so I took the items out of the bags and just dropped the empty bags on the kitchen floor.

They thought that was so much fun and they were jumping on each other in the bags, having a wonderful time. When they finished, instead of picking all the bags up and putting them aside to put in the supermarket bin, I just dropped them all into the blue tub to keep the kitchen tidy.

WELL! Talk about an explosion of fun.

Kimiko and Dash wandered in a little while later and when they jumped into the tub, they thought it was it was fabulous to play there with all that noise.

So … what else could I put in there to make it more interesting? Mmmmm! Empty water bottles were a natural – how much fun for them to try and take tops off the bottles — and other bits and pieces that they enjoyed playing with. So … it all went into the tub and – tah dah!!!! A great playground for my babies

As you can see from this – you don’t need to spend lots of money on expensive toys for your ferrets! Just make sure the plastic bags can’t tangle around your ferret’s neck — cut the handles — and check that nothing else can hurt your baby/ies and I promise you’ll get a laugh a day when they go tunnelling around in all that rubbish!! LOL!

Buona Pasqua! 復活節快樂! Sretan Uskrs! Veselé Velikonoce! God påske! Zalige paasdagen! Hyvää Pääsiäistä! Frohe Ostern! Καλό πάσχα! Áldott Húsvétot kívánok! Wesołych Świąt Wielkanocnych! Христос воскресе! Vesele velikonočne praznike! ¡Felices Pascuas! 復活祭おめでとう!

Wishing you, your family and all your ferrets (and other pets, of course) a truly Happy Easter … BUT … just a little word of warning —

Please do NOT let your ferrets go near the chocolate Easter eggs! Chocolate contains theobromine, which is poisonous not only to your ferret, but to dogs as well!

Keep safe and have a great weekend

These photos were taken on Monday, just over 2 weeks from when he got his suprelorlin implant.

I don’t know what I thought I would see after 2 weeks … I didn’t expect him to suddenly have lots of fluffy fur bursting forth out of his back but I suppose I was hoping that once the implant was put in, that it would halt the hair loss. Maybe it did but as I didn’t count every follicle before the implant and afterwards, I don’t know if it did anything

But I must say that Angus certainly doesn’t act like he’s sick, he acts more like a crazy kit He does the wackiest weasel wardance every morning and if he gets excited, his remaining fur puffs out and makes him look so silly but extremely cute. Just have to love those ferrets

I was trying to get my hands on a bottle of HEALx Booster so spoke to the folks who provide me with my Transfer Factor Plus & Poly-MVA, George & Sue, to see if they could get it for me.

George rang me to talk about the HEALx and during the conversation, he asked me if I had thought about giving Angus DHA Omega. Researchers found that Omega-3 fatty acids helped to shrink cancerous tumors in mice but that “DHA (docosahexanoic acid) reduces white blood cell accumulation, systematic inflammation and oxidative stress. All three factors are said to be prevalent in tumor growth.”

Well, George didn’t have to twist my arm to get a bottle of DHA Omega – I asked him to send me one and I’ve been giving both Angus and Seamus one capsule each daily.

When I first got the capsules, I opened one, mixed it into turkey mince but when I put the mince down, they both sniffed it and looked at me as if I’d grown two heads! I ended up giving the mince to Zac, our dog!

I had to improvise so cut the capsule, squeeze it into an egg cup, shlurp up the oil into a syringe then squeeze the oil gently into their mouths. They don’t really like it but have now stopped squirming as I give it to them, thank goodness

They’ve both been on their DHAs for just over a week now and I really think that Seamus is a lot more perky since he’s been taking his oil than before. If you recall, I thought that Seamus had adrenal problems last year so that’s why I put him on the DHA.

I guess only time will tell if the supplement does, indeed, help them so I’ll keep you all informed on their progress

I got sent this video from a friend of my sister’s who knows how batty I am about ferrets.

I’ve seen it before but it still amazes me that they were able to train the ferrets and the fox to stay so quietly on the lady before given the go-ahead to scatter

I bet whoever trains those ferrets has managed to get them all to poop in their litter tray, not to dig in couches and all the other things which I have been a total failure getting my guys to do, or rather NOT do, over the many years of ferret ownership!

I’ve found that some of my ferrets have been super willing to listen and to obey me. Others shrugged their shoulders and carried on scratching at a closed door or ruining the couch or whatever else it was I didn’t want them to do!

Ferrets are such intelligent little animals but they all have different personalities. As I said, some are totally eager to listen and do as commanded. Others are as stubborn as a mule and no matter how often you tell them the same thing, they won’t obey.

Unfortunately I think that’s where some ferrets, who are bought by inexperienced or uncaring people, come a-cropper. Those owners don’t understand that ferrets all have different personalities and if they have one of those stubborn types who don’t listen, then I think the owners get all bad tempered and annoyed and that’s when they start abusing their pet.

I’ve heard such terrible tales of ferrets who’ve been kicked, or whose teeth have been pulled with pliers, or other heartbreaking stories which have reduced me to tears. It really grieves me to think that those kinds of people think it’s acceptable to harm an innocent animal for whatever reason.

… only about Bam, the dog which was found floating on the roof of a house THREE weeks after the tsunami hit that part of Japan!

When I first heard that the Japanese Coast Guard found a dog alive and well floating on the roof of a house out to sea, I was so happy. Finally a little glimmer of happiness out of many weeks of seriously depressing news.

Then when I heard that the dog’s owner recognised her puppy and contacted the relevant authorities, I just burst into tears! So wonderful to finally have a good news story coming out of that poor country!

I wish Bam and her owner many years of health and happiness! God knows they deserve it!

There’ve been too many depressing animal stories in the news for so many months now so I’m thrilled I’ve got something happy to report on, even if it’s nothing to do with ferrets!

I’ve dodged this bullet for SEVENTEEN years!  Imagine that!

Well – actually that’s not entirely true, as Muis my albino girl who developed insulinoma got it at the end of her life but the AGD was as a result of her insulinoma.

You might have read my post about Seamus, when I thought he had AGD and took him for an ultrasound and biopsy, but – thankfully – both found that there was nothing wrong with his adrenal glands.

Angus was fine until the middle of February, when it seemed like the hair on his back was thinning. Being an albino, it was hard to see and say – OMG! Yes! His hair’s thinning! – but over the weeks it became obvious that it was.

I spoke to a friend, who’s also a WAFFS’ committee member, and she agreed that the bilateral hair loss on Angus’ spine was a sign of adrenal gland disease.

She told me that WAFFS’ vet, Dave Neck, doesn’t like to operate on ferrets older than 5 years and suggests that it’s far better to give them a suprelorin implant. It’s not cosmetic, as I originally thought, it helps to suppress the production of GnRH in the brain which, in turn, suppresses the production of hormones from the adrenal glands.

Well, Angus had his implant last Thursday (March 24) and it takes about 2 weeks to see any improvement so …. I shall let you know how he goes next Thursday.

I must say that the disease hasn’t slowed him down at all. He is just the most fantastic weasel wardancer in the gang and watching his antics today, I thought that perhaps I should have called him Rudolf (as in Nureyev) instead of Angus. He has this ridiculous jump which lands him on his side and when he does land on his side, he sticks both arms and legs out and goes all silly! It’s the funniest thing I’ve seen … must get it on video to show you all

But seriously – if it weren’t for his hair loss I wouldn’t have know he was sick and I hope that by having the implant, he’ll grow all his hair back, calm down a bit (he was always a bit of a Neanderthal but recently seems a bit more of one!) and gets back to being the sweet, smoochy boy that he was in the past!

I”ll keep you appraised on how he’s getting on

There have been a few Google alerts in my mailbox to warn owners about xylitol and ferrets in the past few weeks and just today there was a story about a vet who examined a ferret suffering from liver damaged caused by eating Tic Tacs.

It seemed a good time to remind all ferret owners, both old-timers and newbies, about the dangers that lurk in our houses that could cause problems for our little guys.

Xylitol

Xylitol is a sugar-free additive found to be toxic to dogs for a while but now it’s been found that ferrets which have eaten products which contain xylitol have the same bad reactions to it as dogs.

Some products which have xylitol are …

Some of these items would be things you’d carry around with you – like the gum or Tic Tacs – and if you empty your pockets when you get home, or leave them in your purse, and your ferret/s find them and decide they’d like to try them for themselves, the results could be disastrous.

Recently there’ve been a few articles in the Ferret section of the Small Animal Channel website talking about xylitol poisoning and they’re worth reading about, if you care for the wellbeing of your little friend.

Dr Jerry Murray discusses a case he had recently where a young ferret ate some Tic Tacs and developed liver damaged.

There was also another article about someone who reckons his ferret died after eating some sugar-free gum it found in the house

Should you find your ferret with any of those items in its mouth, please take it to a ferret savvy vet IMMEDIATELY as you just can NOT wait if that happens!

Food around your house

Avocado…

Did you know that avocados have a substance called persin which is toxic to most animals?

The ads in Oz say “‘Ave an avo” and I know they’re great for humans but they’re an absolute no no for your ferrets to chow down on!

Chocolate…

Chocolate contains theobromine, which is toxic to most animals. No feeding your ferret any (chocolate) Easter eggs or leaving it anywhere where it can be stolen by your ferret

Grapes & Raisins…

Who’d have thought! Raisins have been touted as treats for ferrets in the past and now they find out it could cause kidney problems! And, as they’re full of fibre and could even get stuck in a ferret’s gut if not chewed a thousand times! Yikes! Grapes are also dangerous as they can cause kidney problems too.

Then there are worries about medications, household cleaning products and plants which can hurt your ferret or other pets in your house. You can read more details about those here.

So, please keep your ferret safe from all these human items to ensure its healthy life in your family

Like everyone, the scenes of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan have left me shell shocked and now, with the problems at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, it makes you wonder when enough is enough for the poor country.

I don’t know anyone who lives in the affected region but the tragedy was made more personal when I got an email from someone telling me that he couldn’t contact a vet, Dr Yuji Matsuda, whose house was apparently on the coastline in Sendai, the worst affected area by the tsunami. Dr Matsuda is listed as a ferret savvy vet on my page on Japanese vets and the thought of his house being right in the path of the tsunami made the hairs on my arms stand up with horror.

I hope to God that Dr Matsuda and his family are safe but that got me thinking about the animals he might have had in his surgery. They certainly wouldn’t have survived as I doubt very much that he would have had time to evacuate all of them before the tsunami hit.

It also got me thinking about all the wildlife that would have perished. I know that there are a number of mustelids in Sendai – Japanese martens, ermines, Eurasian badger and the Siberian weasel, amongst other animals – and a couple of years ago an Australian guy, Pablo, got in touch with me asking for advice for a little animal he rescued. It turned out it was a Siberian weasel kit which he called Fitz!

Pablo joined my ferret forum and regaled us with stories about Fitz, which we all loved hearing about

Unfortunately Fitz died from unknown causes after about a year and Pablo was heartbroken. I don’t know where Pablo lived exactly but I do know he was coming back to Australia so I hope he did and is safe and sound down under now.

I’ve been trying to find out if there’ve been any miraculous stories about rescued ferrets for obvious reasons, since this is a blog about ferrets and sundry mustelids, but unfortunately there’s nothing out there.

Although nothing about ferrets, there was a heartwarming story about a wonderful dog who was looking after his friend who was hurt.

The article made me cry, and I’m sure it’ll make any animal lover cry. I just hope that the hurt pooch will recover fully and his protective friend is fine and both will find loving, forever homes with good families.

I know money is tight these days but if anyone out there has a few dollars to spare, there are some organisations in Japan which are looking after the homeless animals and could use our support.

One such organisation is ARK — Animal Refuge Kansai. During the 1995 Hanshin earthquake they not only took in dogs and cats but also birds and rabbits. I would imagine if they found any homeless ferrets, they’d take them in without question.

Another one is Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support, which is coalition of three groups: HEART-Tokushima, Animal Garden Niigata and Japan Cat Network. Again they say that they’ll be looking after all the displaced dogs and cats that are recovered but would also take in other animals which are found.

Thank goodness for people like that who care about the poor animals who can’t speak of their trauma or pain incurred by these dreadful disasters.

Hopefully these organisations will be able to make all the animals in their care forget the horrors they had to endure and will find them homes with families who will shower them with love and affection and make them feel secure again.

It’s been so hot recently that I was wondering what I could do to keep the ferrets cool and then I had a great idea … ice cubes in their water dish

I know they melt quickly but I was very curious to see what the reaction would be so when Mojo was at the dish, I dropped a few cubes in and stood watching.

It was hilarious! Talk about bob the apple

She was mesmerised by the ice cubes floating past her nose and decided she had to catch on and see what it was all about. I didn’t think she’d manage but manage she did!

She picked the ice cube out of the bowl, put it on the mat and started to chew it! It was the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long while as the icy cube made her screw up her little nose while she was crunching down on it. She looked so adorable!

Good thing her teeth are in good shape otherwise I reckon it would have been a horrible experience – LOL

He is one water weasel – no other word for him

We have an old bathtub in the laundry that has the food and water dish in, being contained so (we hope) no mess scattered.

It always makes me laugh to go into the laundry and see Dash snorkling around in the water dish and – even more amusing – to see him lying in the dish, defending it from the others!! He is without a doubt a very “cool” ferret!

Mind you – we’re into the second week of hot weather.

We’ve had 38C [100F] today and they predict the same for tomorrow and there’s been nothing under 34C [93F] during the day for the past 10 days. The nights are even worse with minimums (minima?) flopping between 25C [77F] – 28C [82F] mark — so no surprises that my furry little guy loves splashing about in the water! Wish I could the same with as much abandon – LOL!!

My little toe biter has calmed down considerably and is now my little smudgy wudgy kisser, together with Kimiko. Even Mojo is back to being a sweet little smoochy ferret, having got over her snit with Kimiko’s presence!

I can’t imagine how any ferrets which live outside in our great state are coping in this heat. It must be hell, as I’m sure that any frozen 2L bottles put in their cages would defrost in no time and just be bottles of tepid, if not hot, water there. Not much fun for the ferrets, I’m sure

My guys are in an air conditioned house and they do the “flattened weasel pose” on the cool floors! What wimps

I’ve been searching the internet and couldn’t find anything about whether the necropsy report had been done and if it had, what the result was.

Then I found this article, which says absolutely nothing new apart from the fact that the children have been taken off the parents and now live with other family members.

It would appear that nothing will be released until all the information has been gathered by the authorities to see what, if anything, should be done with the parents.

I was dismayed to read in that article that …”It was later determined that the ferret had severed the infant’s seven fingers”. What does that mean? Did they do the necropsy and find 7.5 fingers in the ferret’s stomach? I doubt it. Could a ferret even fit 7.5 fingers in its stomach?!

The story is just so implausible and I say again – looking at my 3 month old grandson’s hands when he’s visiting, they are always balled into fists and I find it awfully hard to believe a ferret could sit on a baby, sever those fingers then munch them up while the child must have been writhing around and screaming in awful pain.

All the comments written by ferret owners agree that this story smells VERY fishy and it just doesn’t seem possible for the ferret to have done what it was accused of doing.

I thought this was such a cute video, I just had to share it with you all

A thought! Maybe we should be baking or making some kind of heart-shaped treats for our little darlings for this coming Monday! LOL!

Wishing you and all your ferrets a very HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY filled with much love and laughter!

I love my sleepy ferrets but I adore it when they stick their tongues out when sleeping – it’s so cute

I found him zonked on our bed, snoring quietly and dead to the world, so had to take these photos.


Poor guy, the hair on his belly still hasn’t grown back fully after his ultrasound all those months ago! It was a relief to know that he didn’t have any problems with his adrenals but he really has wound down quite a bit since then.

He acts like an old guy. He sleeps a lot but still has bursts of being idiotic and does a very clumsy weasel wardance on the bed! Can ferrets grow old prematurely? I also am pretty sure he’s blind in both eyes. Not cataracts, as they’re not cloudy, but he seems to bump into things sometimes and occasionally gets a fright when I stroke his head.

Added to that, his fur is slowly going from brown to grey. Now I know it happens to all silvermitts when they get to a certain age but going grey certainly adds to making him look older!

Thank goodness I did get all those tests done on him because I would have been totally convinced that he was really ill otherwise!

Ahhh the pleasures of ferret ownership – so many ups and downs

Dash, peeking out from out of the Chest-of-Drawers-Hilton

I wanted to have one of each colour and, of course, in a perfect world I would have a boy and a girl in each of the main colours, ie sable, silvermitt, black-eyed white and albino. However even I know that I must be sensible

So now I have 3 white ones and 3 brown ones!

Dash could be Kimiko’s twin if she hadn’t been a silvermitt. They look so alike when they’re rushing around that I have to check the colour of their collars to know which name to call out!

And, of course, Mojo isn’t far behind to work out what is happening with the two youngsters …

Dash is a real sweetheart and is pretty good with not nipping us but sometimes, just sometimes, he’ll decide he wants to eat my feet and boy, does that hurt

He’s pretty good about being very gentle but sometimes he gets over-excited and then ~ CHOMP ~ his needle-like teeth come down on a toe or finger! It isn’t hard enough to draw blood and I know it’s because he was spooked by something.

I just pick him up, stroke him and tell him “gentle”, kiss his nose and let him go. That worked to make Kimiko a real smoochy little girl who loves giving me kisses all over my face, so I’m sure Dash will be the same. Time and patience and everything will be cool

Again, like with Kimiko and Mojo, the introduction was great. The older boys accepted him without blinking and the girls … well, I think they are in love!!

I wonder if the painless introduction is because the breeder brought the newcomer to our house every time. They had the ferret in a cat carrier, brought it into the sitting room, opened the door and let their kits out. My gang just swarmed around the carrier and sniffed, then sniffed the newbie and that was that. No hissy fits, no stink bombs. Everyone is friends! Quite incredible

Well, I hope all my guys will be around for a very long, long time. I told hubby the lowest I would go is two ferrets so I hope my “busy-ness” will be a sixsome for quite a while!

It’s amazing but Kimiko reminds me so much of Fidget, my first silvermitt.

Take a look at these photos …

First is of Fidget on the flowerpot …

and this is Kimiko, sprawled on the kitchen floor …

Both are big girls and have very pronounced markings – dark legs and tails and an almost identical mask on their faces, although Fidget’s face was a big squarer than Kimiko’s. So different from Kahlua, my last silvermitt, who was a very petite girl and whose markings were quite faint.

It’s kinda weird seeing Kimiko bouncing around like a mad thing as it brings back all of Fidget’s crazy antics She was my second ferret and my first kit … and what a difference she was from Mash!

She was totally loco and into everything; she also enjoyed driving Boris, our old Rottweiler, crazy by ambushing him and trying to ride him like a bucking bronco

Kimiko does the same thing with Zac and quite often I have that “deja vu” bittersweet moment which takes me back to the olden days with Fidget and Mash.

I still miss the old gang terribly but it’s impossible to forget them with these everyday reminders

To be honest, there is no update!

I have been scouring the internet hoping to find the necropsy results but to no avail The only news article I’ve found which has new information is on The Pointe’s website.

What I never knew was that someone was trying to rescue the ferret from the family before this tragedy happened – and they didn’t succeed! DRATS!

You will also see that it was stated on that site that … “The Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office will make the decision on when to analyze the animal’s stomach contents, which were removed by the Jackson County Animal Hospital East in Grain Valley. The only analysis that has been authorized and has come back so far was from the portion of the animal sent to the Missouri Department of Health confirming that it was rabies-free.”

I wonder if we will ever be privy to the results of the necropsy report. Somehow I doubt it because I have heard that the privacy laws in Missouri might mean that we mere mortal ferret owners will never know the truth and, worst still, the poor ferret in question — and ALL ferrets by extension — might never be exonerated!

Look at this blog post at the Cafe Mom site … the author didn’t even try to research the facts, saying – and I quote – “Jesus, how do you have a wandering rodent in your home with your baby?”

That made me SOOOOOO angry because the author just spewed out what she saw on the news – blindly believing it was truth. No one should put posts up without checking facts first.

She should have Googled ferrets to see if they were rodents and then seen what other reports were out there on the internet so that she could have written a fair and balanced report about the incident. She should have but she didn’t, so more rubbish about ferrets is out there in the World Wide Web which could be construed as fact.

However I digress … scroll down to the post by “lilelvengirl”, which I quote below …

“I live near where this happened as well. From what I understand from a vet friend of mine: A) the baby was left to nap in a carseat right next to mom who was asleep on the couch; B) the couple owned several dogs and authorities had visited several times regarding issues with the dogs; C) the ferret was kept without a cage; D) 8 off the child’s fingers were gone before mom woke up; E) mom woke up to see the ferret on top of the child (but no report was heard that the ferret was chewing on the baby at that point); F)once mom woke up, dad rushed to the rescue, killing the *evil* ferret, not before when baby should have been screaming bloody murder. Again, this is what I was told by a local vet, who is generally a reliable source of info regarding local animal stories. I do not know what their source was, so there might be inaccuracies, though it’s not likely.”

What else can I say! More and more I reckon the poor little ferret was blamed for something it did not do

At least now the little guy is feeling no pain at the Rainbow Bridge, weasel wardancing with his friends or family who have gone on before him.

The parents of that child should be charged with animal cruelty amongst other things, IMHO!

Okay, here are more points about that incident where the poor ferret was accused of eating 7 fingers off a baby as reported by The Pointe.

What we already know is that the mother claims she fell asleep next to the baby in the sitting room. She said she woke up “when she heard the child screaming and saw the ferret next to her bloodied son”. The father ran into the room, picked up the ferret and threw it across the room, killing it.

I think most ferret owners agree that that is a very unbelievable story and one has to wonder what the parents had taken to make them sleep so soundly!

Now this information comes out …

• Apparently “the parents “tried to influence one of the children,” in what the child told investigators.”

Hmm, does that mean the story about the ferret was a lot of hooey? Or that the parents were not actually at home at the time and maybe another animal, a dog perhaps, actually bit the fingers off and the ferret was just at the wrong place at the wrong time when the parents came home?

• The parents had also claimed that the ferret had “attacked and bitten” the baby earlier. Now it’s been reported that “a photograph taken on the father’s cell phone, which showed the infant on a recent trip to Indiana in which he had ‘no scratches on his face.’”

If that’s true, why did the parents accuse the ferret of biting the baby previously? To me it sounds like they were determined to shovel as much blame onto that poor ferret, to show that it was a vicious animal.

And this from the parents’ attorney …

• “Miller (the attorney) also implied that PETCO, from which the ferret was purchased, might be partly to blame. He provided the court with a copy of the paperwork the Waldos received from PETCO, in which he said there was no reference to ferrets being capable of such an act.

“It talks about feces and cleanliness, but there was no warning that ferrets could become violent, and no indication that a ferret could do what it did,” Miller said.”

What utter RUBBISH. Is the attorney setting the stage for the parents to sue Petco?

In all my 17 years of ferret ownership – and also being involved with Ferret Rescue – I have NEVER seen a “violent” ferret. NEVER!

Mischievous? Yes!
Naughty? Yes!
Scared? Yes!
Nervous? Yes!
Fearful? Yes!
(The last three due to abuse by previous owners!)

Violent? No!

I know some ferrets can bite and bite hard – I got a couple of rescues many years ago which had been abused during the first 5 months of their lives. They were both fear biters and I still have the scars on my eyebrow and lip from Milo but it dawned on me that when he bit me, he clamped down with his teeth. He did NOT keep on biting and chew half my face off!

Needless to say, it took a few months but after lots of love and TLC, both Milo and Otis turned out to be sweet and gentle little guys once they learned to trust us.

I know that some ferrets enjoy eating a chicken neck (mine never liked them, they just enjoyed stashing the necks in my underwear drawer ) but it takes a while for the ferret to get through one neck.

I was looking at my 2 months’ old grandson’s fingers on Saturday. His little hands were bunched up into fists while he was here so what if that was the same with the 4 month old’s hands. If the baby’s hands were clean, what would even make the ferret want to go and investigate the fingers in the first place?

I’m sorry, the more reports I read, the more I think the poor ferret has been made the fall guy.

Have you all read the news reports about this? Have you scratched your head and wondered how on earth a ferret COULD have done that, like I did?

I’m sorry but something doesn’t smell right here and the people reporting this don’t seem to care about ferreting (pun intended) out the facts!

Tell me – where were the parents when all this was happening? Why on earth did they leave their baby unattended and let their ferret roam around the house. Was the ferret starving? No way a well looked-after ferret would eat any fingers otherwise.

Why didn’t the parents come running the minute the baby started screaming when the ferret first started biting its fingers? Where were they?

Then the report that the ferret pooped 2, or was it 3?, fingers and had the rest in its stomach. Hello! Anyone who’d bother to research the story would see this doesn’t make sense. You telling me that the ferret ate the first 2-3 fingers, pooped them out after 3-4 hours then went back and ate more fingers? Come on!!

Then more sensationalism with some paper actually lifting a ferret owner’s photo of her ferret yawning off her site and trying to make out that the ferret is in attack mode. The lady complained to the editor and hey, guess what, they removed that photo and put that revolting one of the Mountain Dew ferret up. That blog is obviously intent on whipping up people’s hysteria and make the public think that ferrets really are bloodthirsty, vicious animals. Such bias reporting makes me sick!

There were a couple of posts by people who runs ferret shelters on a FB ferret group I’m a member of saying that since all these reports came out, a number of people who said they’d be adopting ferrets have changed their minds and also getting calls from people wanting to surrender their ferrets. It is tragic to think that people want to hand in their ferrets but, IMHO, I think those people cannot be considered good ferret owners so perhaps that’s the best thing for their ferrets’ welfare.

Anyone who knows their ferret wouldn’t be affected by this incident – they would just grab their ferrets, hug them tightly and tell them how much they love them and what great little animals they were. Well, at least that’s what I did!

There seems to be no balanced reporting about this. No one seems interested in saying that there are far more dog attacks on kids than ferret attacks over the years. Oh no! No balanced reporting trying to figure out why it happened and who really is to blame for this. Oh no! That would be responsible reporting and sensationalism sells far more papers, doesn’t it.

I hope the authorities do some proper checking and find out what really happened and I hope that the poor ferret is exonerated when the facts come out. But if that happens, I’m sure no one will report that

They continued their walk and when they returned past the same spot and heard the little one still crying, they got in touch with Scottish SPCA who came and collected the pup.

Naming her Luce, after a river in the area, they’re taking care of the little one and once she’s weaned, the’ll be taking her to the International Otter Survival Fund on Skye where she can frolick with other otter pups before being released into the wild when she’s a year old.

Another good new story – I must say I do love ‘em

My quirky quintet send many dooks to your furkids and hope that you all have a healthy and happy, vet-free time in 2011

Angus

Seamus

Spook

Mojo

Kimiko

What an exciting week for my fabulous five … they spent Thursday playing with Imogen, our eldest granddaughter who was here for the night, as well as hiding in the chest of drawers because of the loud noises coming from outside.

Why were there loud noises? Because of the different backhoes they had making gigantic holes

We’ve been having problems with our drains for the past 9 months, ever since the power company replaced the power pole on the verge next to our driveway and put some underground cables under the driveway and along the length of our verge with horizontal directional drillers. On Wednesday all the drains blocked – nothing drained away so we couldn’t use the loo, the shower, the basin, or think about using the washing machine or dishwasher in case all that dirty water came right back into the machines.

We called the plumber and when he came, he couldn’t unblock the drain so called the Water Corp. As previous plumbers had told the Water Corp about the problem, our details were on file so they said they’d be sending out an emergency unit to try and unblock whatever it was that same day.

They came within the hour and their tools got stuck so they said it was time to call out the heavies, who’d be coming to dig holes and find out what exactly the problem was the following day.

Yay! I could hardly wait!

Thursday dawned bright and sunny and by 8am the diggers were outside, ready to do their work!

They dug a huge hole in our lawn just outside our fence line, then half our concrete drive was cut away and they dug under that. It was an absolute mess and the noise!! Wow! No surprises the ferrets got scared and ran away when they heard it. I had all the windows shut and it was still loud!

Fortunately they finished at the end of the day and cleaned up after themselves really well but, when I went out to shut the gate, I noticed that they’d forgotten to cover the drain hole on our side of the fence!

I almost died when I saw that hole. You could just imagine what a magnet that would be to any ferret if it got outside and Spook, our BEW, has a very bad habit of dashing out the door to dance amongst the plants we have in pots out front.

Needless to say, the dreams I had last night were mainly about ferrets running down drain holes and me chasing them, trying to find them before it was too late! Talk about a restless night – I could almost feel my legs pumping as I raced about the garden getting more and more stressed at not being able to find all my ferrets – and I woke up exhausted!

First thing this morning I sent hubby out to find the top to that drain and make sure it was put securely onto the opening Phew!

Wishing all everyone and their ferrets (and dogs and cats, of course) a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and may 2011 be a really HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Hope the new year brings nothing but good things for you and your pets

Hasn’t the weather gone totally crazy this month? I’ve been reading about the dreadful snow storms in the US, the UK and on the Continent … I hope your ferrets enjoy weasel wardancing in the snow

However did you guys know that people in New South Wales are also having a white Christmas? Now that really IS weird, since it’s summer down under!!!

Snow at Charlotte Pass lookout in the NSW Snowy Mountains (Photo: Steve Cuff)

I was selected to be a featured blogger for Pet Blogs United and it was a joy to write about how ferrets first came into my life.

It brought back so many memories of Mash, the fun we had together and the things she taught me about their wonderfully quirky habits. I got quite snottery when I remembered her funny little personality and the very unco weasel wardance she used to do

I do recommend people to visit the site. There are quite a number of pet blogs featured there but they’re mainly about dogs and cats, so if you have a ferret blog, it’d be great if you got your blog listed there as well.

What better way to educate pet lovers about the best pet in the world

There are some adorable photos of a mother otter and her 3 pups “skating” on a lake in Somerset, in the UK, in this Daily Mail article.

Mama Otter found where the ice was the thinnest, made a small hole and went fishing. Must have been a cold experience – thank goodness they have such thick pelts to protect them from the elements

Mama Otter scooting along the ice

The otter pups following their mama