The other day I was in a pet store picking up some of the necessities.
Things like N-bones, Totally ferret senior, and oh yeah, some cat food.
Yeah I have a cat too, a mackerel striped tabby cat named Igor,
pronounced eye-gore. Straight out of Young Frankenstein. If you don't
get the reference, I suggest you rent the movie. Anyhow, while I was
there, I decided to pick up a new tube for the guys to use. They
shredded their last one some time ago.
I came home all proud of myself for being such a good dad and
took the tube out and attached it to the big ball thing made for this
purpose. The first thing I noticed was that the tube wouldn't stay
stretched out, the spring would pull it back together. I pulled it
way out and held it there for a bit, but it would slowly pull itself
back together. I stretched it out and left it. The kids showed it
sporadic interest at best. Whenever I went in I would stretch it
out for them. It was clear that it wasn't as much fun to run down
a short little thing as it was when it was stretched out.
We went on for a few days doing things that way. I would
stretch it out whenever I went in, which is frequently. When
I did this there would be about 10 minutes of high intensity
play and then they would stand around waiting for me to
do it again. This was all the youngsters playing, Sasha,
Ozzie, and Lizbeth. Lil and Starlight are much to refined for
any such shenanigans. Anyhow, one day I had an epiphany,
what if I stretched out the tube and tied it into a knot like a
pretzel? Brilliant I thought and enacted this plan as soon as I
got home.
The 3 kids were having their playtime when I went to
implement plan. Ozzie always flips out ecstatically when
I come in the room while he is out, and this occasion was
no exception. This always transfers to the other 2 as well,
making it a little difficult to get the tube picked up, stretched
out and pretzel-ized with 3 ferrets jumping on you. I
accomplished my task though, and the 3 of them went to
town with it. It was the coolest flurry of frenetic ferret frenzy
I have seen in a long while. It is a riot with all 3 of them in there
at once! The down side of it is that they go at it with such gusto
that within 10 minutes, the tube is lying out straight again.
Then they come at me, jumping up on my legs to get me to do
it again. I think it is good that it won't stay knotted up, because
then it would become just the same old toy and wouldn't get
used as much.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Yuck! Bad breath!
Well, Since the last time I wrote anything not much exciting has
happened around here. Last week I took Lil and Star in for their
annual poking and prodding, which is twice a year now since they
are officially into old lady status. Everything looked pretty good.
The only problem being Lil's teeth. Even though I have been
brushing her teeth once a day, not a venture for the faint of heart,
she still has gross-ness going on in there. So next week she is going
in to get her teeth and gums cleaned up. Starlight is pushing 7 years
old, but doing pretty good. She has had her teeth done and a lump
taken off of her belly, which was almost but not quite cancerous. No
other lumps have shown up since, so we are keeping our fingers
crossed. She go a melatonin chip installed, which will hopefully help
her out some. She was very good about it, she didn't even squirm.
Elliot used to freak out when we did it to him.
We did have a bit of a miracle a couple of weeks ago. When I am
home I go in and check on the kids frequently. At night, the cage
of youngsters are out to play and Lil and Star are in their house.
They need to separated because Lil and Ozzie will start to go at
it. It was dislike at first sight when Lil met him. Anyway, One
time I went in to check, and said hi to Lil and Star, and forgot
to shut the top door after I was done! Now I have ferrets that
are part Monkey, they will all climb up the sides of the cages.
Usually when I do this, it is followed in short order by a lot of
screeching and fighting as Lil and Ozzie go at it. But they
didn't this time. I went back in before going to bed, about an
hour or so later and saw it open and almost freaked out. Lil
and Star were still sleeping soundly. I looked around the room
and Ozzie was in his usual hidey hole, in the cloth tube he pulled
under the chest. Lizbeth was in there with him, but I couldn't
find Sasha. Turns out she climbed up into Lil and Stars cage
and went down to the second floor and into the big sock there
and was sleeping there. No fighting at all, I was amazed. Maybe
there is hope they will all get along and we can have only one
play time? I will have to experiment and see if Lil still hates
Ozzie, maybe just by being in the same room, they are getting
used to each others scent?
As for the youngsters, they are all fine, boisterous as ever. I
am still trying to get the idea across to Lizbeth that biting is
not a good thing. She is an incredibly cute and cuddly looking
sable ferret with white mitts, but you have to be careful if
you pick her up. She will pretty quickly start to show an interest
in your hand, and if you let her look to close, the teeth will come
out! She has only gotten me good once. Lately she has just been
grabbing, but I don't let her do it if I can avoid it. Ozzie hasn't
tried for me in a while, so maybe he is getting past it. Although
I don't offer him my nose! Lizbeth has a fun task she performs.
If the food in their bowl gets a little to old for her, she will
evacuate from the bowl all over the floor for me, that way I know to
fill it up again! We are still working on litter box etiquette with the
youngun's, They use the one on the 2nd floor of their house no
problem. It was hard to get a box with a high back in there.
They wouldn't use the corner pan because it was too small, they
like to be in it when they go. The tray I tried for there was big
enough, but they would hike their butts up so that they would
poop right out of the box half of the time. So with the help of a
utility knife and some goop glue, I combined the two so that I
have a high backed pan they can stand in to go, ( Oh, the
cleverness of me! ). There weren't any to buy that fit the
space I needed it in, and if you know ferrets, you know you
put the litter box where the ferret goes or they will just go
there anyhow! There is a big litter box on the first floor that
goes unused, except to play in. They will go beside it, but
otherwise just play in it. Fortunately that doesn't happen often.
Well, that's it for now, for anyone that may read this, thanks!
Sign my guest book, I will get some new pics up on the site
soon, I hope.....! Sign my guest book! ;-)
happened around here. Last week I took Lil and Star in for their
annual poking and prodding, which is twice a year now since they
are officially into old lady status. Everything looked pretty good.
The only problem being Lil's teeth. Even though I have been
brushing her teeth once a day, not a venture for the faint of heart,
she still has gross-ness going on in there. So next week she is going
in to get her teeth and gums cleaned up. Starlight is pushing 7 years
old, but doing pretty good. She has had her teeth done and a lump
taken off of her belly, which was almost but not quite cancerous. No
other lumps have shown up since, so we are keeping our fingers
crossed. She go a melatonin chip installed, which will hopefully help
her out some. She was very good about it, she didn't even squirm.
Elliot used to freak out when we did it to him.
We did have a bit of a miracle a couple of weeks ago. When I am
home I go in and check on the kids frequently. At night, the cage
of youngsters are out to play and Lil and Star are in their house.
They need to separated because Lil and Ozzie will start to go at
it. It was dislike at first sight when Lil met him. Anyway, One
time I went in to check, and said hi to Lil and Star, and forgot
to shut the top door after I was done! Now I have ferrets that
are part Monkey, they will all climb up the sides of the cages.
Usually when I do this, it is followed in short order by a lot of
screeching and fighting as Lil and Ozzie go at it. But they
didn't this time. I went back in before going to bed, about an
hour or so later and saw it open and almost freaked out. Lil
and Star were still sleeping soundly. I looked around the room
and Ozzie was in his usual hidey hole, in the cloth tube he pulled
under the chest. Lizbeth was in there with him, but I couldn't
find Sasha. Turns out she climbed up into Lil and Stars cage
and went down to the second floor and into the big sock there
and was sleeping there. No fighting at all, I was amazed. Maybe
there is hope they will all get along and we can have only one
play time? I will have to experiment and see if Lil still hates
Ozzie, maybe just by being in the same room, they are getting
used to each others scent?
As for the youngsters, they are all fine, boisterous as ever. I
am still trying to get the idea across to Lizbeth that biting is
not a good thing. She is an incredibly cute and cuddly looking
sable ferret with white mitts, but you have to be careful if
you pick her up. She will pretty quickly start to show an interest
in your hand, and if you let her look to close, the teeth will come
out! She has only gotten me good once. Lately she has just been
grabbing, but I don't let her do it if I can avoid it. Ozzie hasn't
tried for me in a while, so maybe he is getting past it. Although
I don't offer him my nose! Lizbeth has a fun task she performs.
If the food in their bowl gets a little to old for her, she will
evacuate from the bowl all over the floor for me, that way I know to
fill it up again! We are still working on litter box etiquette with the
youngun's, They use the one on the 2nd floor of their house no
problem. It was hard to get a box with a high back in there.
They wouldn't use the corner pan because it was too small, they
like to be in it when they go. The tray I tried for there was big
enough, but they would hike their butts up so that they would
poop right out of the box half of the time. So with the help of a
utility knife and some goop glue, I combined the two so that I
have a high backed pan they can stand in to go, ( Oh, the
cleverness of me! ). There weren't any to buy that fit the
space I needed it in, and if you know ferrets, you know you
put the litter box where the ferret goes or they will just go
there anyhow! There is a big litter box on the first floor that
goes unused, except to play in. They will go beside it, but
otherwise just play in it. Fortunately that doesn't happen often.
Well, that's it for now, for anyone that may read this, thanks!
Sign my guest book, I will get some new pics up on the site
soon, I hope.....! Sign my guest book! ;-)
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