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Post by runningdog on Dec 23, 2017 19:56:34 GMT -5
Continued from Ajax and Achilles’ thread.... Two small jills who won’t stay in a cage downstairs because they can creep between the bars. One Angus, who won’t mix with other ferrets and lives in solitary splendour in my bedroom..... .....and who is now having a sleepover with said jills. He’s in the hammock. They’re in the nest, which is just above the hammock. They’re being a bit hyper because they’ve never been in the house beyond the kitchen, and tonight they’ve found the conservatory and now a big unknown cage in the bedroom, with dogs on the other side of the room (crated for the night, but still - !! ) He’s trying to curl up and sleep and they keep going to bed, slithering out again and landing on him, jolting the hammock about by climbing out to have a drink, poke about downstairs, go potty, climbing back up, trampling over him, scrambling into the nest, falling out again..... It’s like watching a first-time baby sitter trying to get a pair of toddlers to bed after letting them raid the cookie jar. On the other hand, everyone’s happy and nobody’s getting bitten, wrestled or having to squeak, he’s just giving them these slightly exasperated sort of looks each time they wake him up, then curling himself back up again. Best of all, I know the girls won’t be escaping and since they’re within arm’s length of the bed, I can sleep peacefully knowing they’ll wake me up if they decide to start disliking each other. Now it’s my turn to go
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Post by runningdog on Dec 24, 2017 5:50:16 GMT -5
Poor Angus. He can’t get his nose in his breakfast dish for the girls’ noses being there first. I put extra in so there will be some left for him, and in future they can have a bigger dish. They’re still getting on ok, though, so I’m thrilled. ‘Pologies for the quality of the pic but it’s hard when you’re still trying to wake up and the phone only does so much. Angus and Holly in the hammock together, saying good morning to me.
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Post by runningdog on Dec 24, 2017 5:51:47 GMT -5
Here’s a quick video I took when they first met, last night.
So much better than screaming!
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Post by Sherry on Dec 24, 2017 9:17:11 GMT -5
Oh poor Angus He has no idea what hit him! The poley girls are tag teaming him
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Post by runningdog on Dec 24, 2017 15:09:56 GMT -5
He doesn’t seem to mind! He also has much cleaner ears this evening, I noticed, so someone’s showing she has the upper paw and isn’t afraid to use it! I’d put my money on Holly, though Ivy can be surprising in her quiet deviousness too.
Angus very nearly played with Ivy this morning - he tried a little play-pounce out, just a few seconds after she disappeared under the dog blanket, but just on the spot, where it wouldn’t backfire on him, before cautiously following her under the blanket at a safe distance. They’ve spent most of the day curled up as a threesome in the hammock, shared a big dish of chopped rabbit and I’m really hoping he’s ready to have ferret friends again. It’ll make such a difference to his life to have proper playmates - not to mention clean ears!
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Post by runningdog on Dec 24, 2017 18:50:03 GMT -5
And he’s playing! He’s actually playing with other ferrets! Ok, it’s a bit like someone getting back on a bicycle after years of driving cars - he’s struggling to remember the rules and he’s a bit rough and makes them squeak a bit sometimes, but he’s play-wrestling, he’s inviting them to jump on him by rolling over and waving his paws for attention, he’s prancing at them. He’s trying, bless him, and they seem to understand and are willing to play with him, too. They’ve also introduced him to their favourite game, which is nip under the puppy pads and rustle around while turning them upside down, then snigger while human tidies up after you..... Happy Christmas, feazles.
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Post by runningdog on Dec 25, 2017 18:14:42 GMT -5
Angus and the girls are just playing non-stop tonight, all three of them dooking continuously and playing together beautifully. I’m all choked up watching them - when I think back to how Angus screamed at the sight of other ferrets in August when I first got him, and here he is, part of a threesome and having so much fun....
Here he is trying to stash Ivy. She doesn’t seem to mind all that much, to be honest, though of course she didn’t stay stashed behind the dog bed very long!
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Post by Sherry on Dec 27, 2017 8:31:07 GMT -5
You have brought him along so far! I can well imagine getting choked up about the difference <3 Kudos!
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Post by runningdog on Dec 27, 2017 14:32:58 GMT -5
So much for escape-proof cages. I’m convinced Holly was Harry Houdini in a previous life! She managed to open the lower door of their cage yesterday and let everyone out. I picked them all up again (just as well my bedroom’s ferret-proofed!), which really only entails holding my hands out to be climbed for cuddles, and made sure the doors were properly shut when I put them back in later. This morning my daughter came to tell me someone was scratching up the carpet inside my bedroom door. It was Holly, and she’d managed to bend the corner of the lower door away from the frame enough to squeeze through. Admittedly, she’s a very squeezy ferret! Ivy and Angus were asleep in the hammock and looked mildly surprised when I popped Holly back in, as if they hadn’t noticed she’d gone. I went up to collect Holly mid-afternoon to go to the vet for her jill-jab and she wasn’t in the cage again! This time she’d managed to unclip the lower door’s catches and it was hanging open on the two auxiliary clips I’d fitted to it after this morning’s escape. Angus and Ivy did ‘what, again?’ from the hammock. She was stabbed by the vet. She bit him. She bit me, too - hard enough both of us were bleeding slightly. I don’t blame a ferret for stabbing back when people shove dirty great needles into their scruffs, though, and neither did the vet. The lower door of the cage is now tied shut in four places. A Ferret Nation Double is on order from Amazon and should arrive next week. Until then the dogs had better sleep downstairs instead of upstairs, just in case she stages another break and trots into their crates while I’m asleep..... I noted Holly’s weight’s dropped fast since she came into season - Ivy’s still on 940g, exactly where she’s been for weeks, but Holly’s plummeted to 855g, which is nearly down to her summer weight. I assume it’s because her metabolism’s flipped into ‘spring- active mode’ instead of ‘winter-torpid’. There’s nothing wrong with her energy, activity, curiosity, inventiveness, resilience or speed, and while I’d like to have a little more flesh on her ribs, she doesn’t slow down long enough for weight to stick anywhere!
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Post by Sherry on Dec 29, 2017 6:27:58 GMT -5
Oh what a wee bugger lol
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Post by runningdog on Jan 2, 2018 11:29:38 GMT -5
Holly’s coming out of season nicely. Ivy’s just coming in, so I’ll get an appointment for her jab next week sometime. They’re still all getting on beautifully together, sleeping in a lovely fur-pile in the hammock. This morning Holly was laid out flat on her back between Angus coiled one side and Ivy curled upside down the other! They all jumped up the moment I waved a chick at them, of course. It’s amusing when I go into that room for any reason in daylight - three heads pop up like little furry periscopes to see what I’m up to and whether they’re going to get let out and played with (the answer’s often yes, because it’s hard to resist.... ).
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Post by runningdog on Jan 5, 2018 19:46:56 GMT -5
Finally the Ferret Nation double arrived! That’s what you get for ordering off Amazon over the holidays and in the middle of a cold snap - ordered and despatched on the 28th December, reached me 5th January, delayed by the Christmas backlog, a two-day national holiday and then icy roads slowing everything down! Actually I don’t mind because today’s my birthday so it was a great present. Took a couple of hours to assemble, then I started hanging hammocks and tubes and all the rest, before transferring the ferrets over. Angus was delighted and got straight to work examining every inch, crawling into every hammock and testing each tube, nest and blanket with a short lie-down, eyes open and clearly thinking about them before moving to the next. Eventually he chose to drape one of his favourite blankets over a piece of sheepskin on the top shelf, then crawled between them to sleep. Holly tested out the bars to see if she could fit between them (not quite! ) then set about trampolining in the hammocks. She’s decided to sleep on a new small hammock right up near the roof. Ivy examined the nests carefully and has chosen the nest from their old cage as her preferred spot. Everyone has agreed the back right corner of the ground floor is potty place. Puppy pad has been correctly positioned for their convenience by the well-trained human. (I’m not using litter for them - Angus has discovered the joys of digging in litter and now scatters anything he can, everywhere he can!) Tomorrow I’ll let them out and see how long it takes for them to catch on to the scramble net attached at the bottom of one of the lower doors. Not very long, I suspect! The dogs are deeply relieved to be back in their proper crates next to my bed for the night, instead of shut downstairs.... though they were quite startled to find the ferrets in their new cage where the dog crates used to be, and their crates now where the ferrets used to be!
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Post by Blue on Jan 5, 2018 20:23:14 GMT -5
Great stories as always... Happy Birthday!
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Post by runningdog on Jan 6, 2018 17:57:54 GMT -5
They quickly grasped the idea of the scramble net so even the two little jills can come and go from the cage at will when I open the bottom door for them - Angus is just that little bit bigger and can jump the distance from the floor and hoist himself up, the girls can’t quite jump it. They’ve been super about going back to relieve themselves in the cage on their puppy pads, not randomly around the room! Ivy spent twenty minutes obsessively transferring the contents of their food dish to behind the chests of drawers on the other side of the room, silly muppet, so now there’s nothing for them to eat in their cage. I’ll shift the furniture and move the food back into the dish before bed, in case they starve overnight. Angus has been practising gazelle leaps around the room and I’m getting used to seeing him travel past me at knee height. All the same, he came and lay on me for a few minutes of quiet cuddle this evening, which was delightful - he hasn’t quite forgotten me in the excitement of other ferrets! Both girls came and climbed on me too, but apparently only so they could check if there was anything in my ears (there wasn’t) or in my book (so much for concentrating on a new thriller!) and whether it was possible to stash things up my sleeves (no! Just no! )
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Post by runningdog on Jan 7, 2018 12:41:49 GMT -5
I cleaned out the stashes yesterday. Two chicken hearts. Several mouthfuls of minced rabbit (bone in). Three odd socks. Sounds about right.....
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