UK cyber ferret friends

Thanks for stopping by UK chums !

Oh yeah, most of them will tell you they are ferret owners because of the love of the wonderful little creatures. NOT because of Madonna and Paris Hilton as was once reported.

It seems that an animal lover with a huge heart got in over their head in Springdale, Washington – and became a ferret hoarder.

90 Ferrets Rescued (photo by KREM, Spokane)

After realizing that they could not handle all 90 ferrets, the ferret loving fanatic turned over 45 of them to Ferret Haven of Spokane, Washington and then the other 45 to another rescue in Northern Idaho.

My heart is breaking over the 15 ferrets that had to be put down as well as the others in need of a good home.

As you can imagine, the shelter is working on a limited budget where shelter, food and veterinary care bills can be overwhelming. If you can help in any way, I enourage you to contact them.

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Ferret Haven of Spokane
2411 West Rowan Avenue
…Spokane, WA 99205-5734
…
OR to relieve some of the astronomical vet bills totaling in the thousands:

Peone Pines Animal Hospital
Phone: 1-509-466-7115
Fax: 1-509-468-8044
14717 Newport Highway
Mead, WA 99021
Acct# 5735

Bailey - Joined our family in October 2010

I am pleased to announce the newest member of our brood …. Bailey. Bailey came to us as a rescue, and is a great addition. This poor gal was caged most of the time and her owner (mom and daughter) just couldn’t give her the attention and roaming time that she deserved.

Unselfishly, they gave her up for adoption instead of enduring a life of caged boredom. She (we think) is less than 1 year old and in fine health.

Four Happy Furries

I’m sure things will work out well, and we love her !

If anyone has some advice on getting her out of her scared little “shell”, I’d love to hear suggestions.

Evidently, this ferret had been chasing his two large dogs around the backyard. When he opened his sliding glass doors, the dogs bolted inside, running for their lives. The neighbor, unsure of what to do with this animal he had never seen before. Shut the glass door in front of it.

When I heard about this story, my emotions went nuts. Could Zoey still be alive, getting by on fortuitous luck with shelter and food ? Why couldn’t he have just picked her up ? Or better yet, call the police ? … in which case animal control would have her by now. Zoey loved our two dogs at home and would probably recognize other dogs as playmates. This was breaking my heart.

I immediately rushed over to talk to the home owner but he was not home at the time of my visit. So, I hung many more flyers in the neighborhood and went to bed. This morning, I traveled back to the neighborhood to talk to the owner. Luckily, this time he was home. I was surprised as he told this story but unbelievably, even more surprised that he had captured a picture of the event before the ferret disappeared into the night.

We hooked up his camera and laptop and started browsing pictures. I was nervous as Zoey’s picture was about to load. Was she going to be skinny, starved and weathered ? The butterflies in my stomach only lasted a minute or two because as soon as the photo loaded, I recognized the animal as a white skunk. The butterflies turned into a big sinking knot of a feeling that I am too familiar with.

White Skunk - not Zoey

Dave’s visitor was an unusual skunk. Take a look at the photo on this page to see what I mean. I had never seen a white skunk before and neither had Dave. BTW, Dave had never seen a ferret before as well. Attached to this story is a pic that I downloaded from the Internet but is identical to the picture that Dave owns.

Everything is now back to how it was a few days ago. I hope that Zoey has found a home somewhere but at the very least, I hope that she had a peaceful passing and trip to the Rainbow Bridge.

Modern science has taught us that all mammals on the Earth are related and share common ancestry. Of course, just how far back in time the family tree forked depends upon the classifications of the Family of the species within the Mammalia classes that are being compared.

According to Wikipedia.org, the first mammals appeared on Earth roughly 200 Million years ago. With this information in the back of my mind, I stopped by the website Time Tree which is the subject of a new iPhone application and discussed by the UK’s Telegraph.

Ferrets and Humans Share DNA

Fascinating, unbelievable or not believable ? Let me know what your thoughts are.

The location of the capture. (photo by The Oxford Times)

I just love to hear stories about the antics of frisky ferrets.

A ferret on the loose in Eynsham, UK, managed to bring an entire factory to its knees. It seems that somebody’s lost furry found it’s way on to the factory floor of Oxfordshire Print. After being spotted by some startled workers the ferret scurried under a printing press.

The amused employees who spotted the mischievous ferret stopped the presses and tried coaxing him out from hiding. It sounds like their claim of a ferret on the loose inside of the factory was met with a dose of skepticism by others. Just then, the little fella poked his head out to see just what the hell was going on and promptly retreated back into hiding. After twenty minutes of trying to coax him out, he finally was within reaching distance and was captured. Work then resumed as the ferret was placed in a carrier with food and water.

The guilty ferret. (photo by The Oxford Times)

Sales manager Simon Ridler notes that the trouble maker seemed friendly and was not at all scared of his pursuers.

The animal was then turned over to the RSPCA who is asking for help in finding it’s owner. The RSPCA can be reached at 0300 1234 999.

How did this happen ?

I received a call from a homeowner here in the city (metro Detroit) that had found a young ferret in their yard and they didn’t know what to do with it. They asked around the neighborhood but could not locate the owners. Since they already had enough pets, they placed a call to the Humane Society. The Humane Society informed them that they are welcome to drop the ferret off but after four days, if still unclaimed, the animal would be euthanized. They didn’t want the animal to be euthanized so they called me. I didn’t want it to be euthanized, so I went to pick it up. It certainly won’t be hard for me to give away a young ferret.

Cute Ferret ? Nope, Wild Mink

When I arrived at the residence, I was greeted on the porch where the ferret was caged. I was told the young ferret was skittish and feisty. The owners captured the speedy guy by tossing bed sheets over him and then placing him in a cage. Quick and skittish could be understandable if he has been running to save his life from critters the past few days or weeks. Since this little guy was half buried in blankets and was in a frenzied state jumping around, I didn’t really get to check him out that closely. I placed my carrying case next to the larger cage, he hopped in my case and I shut the door behind him. One minute later, I’m saying goodbye, starting my car, and heading home.

While driving, the little fella came up to the front of the door cage and was looking out at me. He did look sorta strange I thought. A little too dark. I had never seen a ferret with so much black on his body … his eyes were different … his nose was dull …. this was really odd. I stuck my closed hand out to the closed cage door to see if he would sniff my hand through the gate and what is reaction would be. In an absolute nanosecond, he snapped his jaws at my hand and hit the cage door face first. Although he was stopped by the wire cage door, he was quick enough to nip and break the skin of my knuckles drawing blood. In this split second, I happened to notice his teeth. They appeared smaller and worn – not long and white as you would expect from a young ferret. At this point, it was overwhelmingly obvious that I had a wild animal. I hadn’t even considered this up until this point because….. well, I’m in the middle of the city picking up a “ferret”.

After arriving home, I searched the ‘net for information on weasels living in the wild. The weasels were close in appearance but just not quite right. I then started looking for information on minks (as a long shot) and was amazed by what I found.

Take a look at the first picture above. As he sits half buried in a blanket, this “ferret” looks a little peculiar but not enough to be alarmed about – especially since I had never met a mink before. Next time, I will know better. I realize that as people read this, they will mention that these animals are noticeably different.  In fact they are.  The minks colors, eyes, ears, teeth, toes and tail are all different.  But I hadn’t closely inspected the little guy and when your brain isn’t even contemplating the chance of seeing a mink, I guess it can slip by.  I’m embarrassed by the incident but I know it will never happen again.

What Now ?

What to do now? I know that I need to talk to my doctor or the health department regarding the bite. They are closed tonight, so I will take this up with them tomorrow. I know that I need to keep this animal (or better yet, have animal control keep it) for monitoring or destruction.

I certainly have no ill feelings towards this guy. He has been yanked out of his environment and forced to go for a car ride in a pet carrier. Understandably, he is not too happy. I even fed him a mouse tonight which provided a better viewing opportunity and photography session.

When I called the original homeowners who found the animal to report my findings, I now learned that one of them was also bit the evening before. Wish us luck in the coming days.

For those of you wondering, the mink poses a very grave danger to other small animals like rabbits, cats or ferrets. He is locked away with no access whatsoever to my real ferrets. I’m sure he will be out of my hands tomorrow.

Mink Photos

These pictures below were taken as I emptied the mink out of the pet carrier and into an empty garbage can.

Wild Mink 1

Wild Mink 2

Wild Mink 3

Wild Mink 4

I had brought Dino along to meet these ferrets prior to adopting them – as a personality compatibility test. Just before entering the house, Dino had been rubbing up against my legs/ankles. This may be related to what happens next.

Daisy Bites Me - Hard

As I enter the home, hand Dino over to a person and take a seat on the couch – Daisy runs straight over to me and bites me on the calf. What the hell ? I gently scruff her and push her away. She runs back to my calf and bites me harder. I scruff her harder with my right hand and go to release her from my calf with my left hand. What does she do ? She releases my calf and chomps down on my left hand. I scruff her harder, she bites me harder – unwilling to let go. She bit me so hard that she draws blood from all 4 teeth marks.

Finally, I get her to release her jaws and I continue to scruff, pinning her to the floor for a few seconds. This did the trick and the episode was over.

I wonder if Dino’s scent on my calf (plus my response) triggered her actions? I guess I’ll never know. Something caused her to bite me harder than any other ferret has bitten me.

Despite this brutal meeting, everything went fine after. Daisy is actually quite loving and nothing similar to this has occurred again. I have since welcomed Daisy and Duke into our home but will remain cautious as she meets strangers in the future.

I then posted about 300 signs within the neighboring blocks of these bushes and have the entire neighborhood looking out for her. But with no leads, I’m losing hope . I did cross paths with some really energetic 10 year old girls named Alissa and Olivia. They are peddling around the neighborhood, full of spunk and ambition to find Zoey. I really hope that they do. Besides the girls, I have met many other pet lovers who offered to leave out food and water overnight. I guess there really are some good souls left out there. These good souls make up for the guy that thought I was a door-to-door solicitor at first, started to close his door, then I showed him a flyer, mentioned that I lost a pet, and his reply was “Don’t care” as he slammed the door shut. If anyone needs a target for pre-Halloween Devil’s night antics, I know his address. Just Kidding. Sort of.

By nightfall, the owner of the property with the row of bushes called to tell me to come on to her property any time. So, tonight I left some food, water and Zoey’s traveling tote – just in case she is around. However, the same lady told me that cats frequently use the row of bushes for a crossing. So, I can only question the possible ferret sighting on that exact spot on the night prior.

This is all so gut wrenching…. maybe tomorrow will be better.