Fuzzy Wuzzy Was...

What the heck is a ferret?

About 5 years ago my 18-year old daughter decided that she should have a new pet and her choice - a ferret.  I had never seen a ferret before and knew nothing about them.  She promptly took me to a friend's house to be introduced to his pet ferret.  We went upstairs to his bedroom and he quickly closed the door before Gus got out. Gus was a sable colored male ferret about the size of a small cat.  Very funny looking with a long body, short legs, cute face and fuzzy tail.  He had kind of a funny smell and moved quickly.  Gus liked to climb up the furniture and get on the desk - why?  To steal the computer mouse.  He spent hours each day wrangling the mouse down and under the bed to his "stash" of stuff that he collected.  Bummer for him, his owner took the mouse back every time.

Gus ran around the room and tried to go up my pant leg as I was sitting on the floor.  I was very nervous wondering if he was going to bite me.  Reassured that he did not bite I tried to hold him but he was too squirmy, a very busy boy.  I asked all the usual questions - what do ferrets eat, where do you keep one (Gus was a free-range ferret, no cage. He had the run of the room and slept in a cardboard box.) I was told they eat ferret kibble and can be litter box trained, love to play and are basically silent.  They make a funny "clicking" sound when they play but do not bark or whine. Perfect pet for a townhouse.

I had to admit the funny looking thing was growing on me.  My daughter quickly took advantage of this weakness and the next Saturday announced she was going to Las Vegas to buy a ferret. "Why drive so far to get a ferret?"  Answer - they are illegal to sell in California so you have to go out of state to buy them.  Off she went and came back with Indica or Indie for short:

 Indie was a 12-week old, tiny bundle of fur with an adorable face.  She slept most of the time and then played like a crazy.  Turns out ferrets sleep 18-20 hours a day and sometimes more with bursts of energy in between.  She quickly grew to her full size of about 1.5 pounds.  Female ferrets are smaller than males and Indie is a smaller female.

My daughter loved Indie and she provided hours of entertainment and fun.  Lots of friends visited because none of them had ever seen a ferret either.  Indie was good with using the litter box in her cage but when she ran loose in the house it was a different story and not a pleasant one.  Lots of little messes to clean up.  Ferrets have a short digestive tract so what goes in comes out frequently.  Indie got banned to her cage and my daughter's room with newspapers in every corner, only allowed out in the reset of the house when she could be watched.  Of course "watched" means something different to a teenager so....still messes to clean up.  Cats will go to their litter box wherever it is.  Ferrets will go to a litter box if it's close but generally when they gotta go, they gotta go, so it needs to be close.  This counts as a negative in my book.  But she was really cute....