Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2011 0:23:38 GMT -5
All Friday and Saturday I was tense and full of anxiety - would the guy show up, or diss us? Would we get burned again? What if we got the ferret, and he was aggressive, or never bonded to me like all the others I've spent time with? What if he didn't like me? What if his litter-box habits were atrocious, abundant, and deliberate like last time? (We went through a mini vengeance-poop h*ll with one of the foster fuzzies.) Needless to say, I didn't get any sleep, so I was up for 24 hours over Friday-Saturday (sorry I haven't been on here earlier).
At 1:50 p.m. we arrived at the Wilco parking lot in Battle Ground, WA. To my surprise, ten minutes later Benjamin arrived, with his three kids who appeared to be ages 14-10 (two girls and a boy) holding fuzzy. Heart beating rapidly, I stepped out of the truck. The eldest girl, and the one who looked the most worried, walked up to me.
"This is Bob," she said, and handed him to me. It was love at first sight. Bob made a show of sniffing my nose, and was remarkably calm for a fuzz being handed to someone else. No flailing at all. I commented on his cute little mitts, then handed him to Peter to hold.
"Cute little guy," Peter said.
"I was managing some apartments up in Seattle when I got a call to come to one of the vacant apartments, and he had been left there for 3 weeks without food or water. He was almost dead," Benjamin said, shaking his head.
"And he was just a kit?" I asked, appalled.
"Yes, he was just a little thing," he replied sadly.
Peter and I murmured our disgust.
"If you like him, I have his cage, food, and litter at our house, and you can just follow me over there," Benjamin said.
I looked at Peter pointedly.
"Okay!" Peter said, grinning.
Benjamin looked at his kids -
"You guys approve?"
Their heads bobbed up and down.
I asked the kids if they would like to hold "Bob" on the drive back home to say their good-byes, and they wanted to, so we drove over without him. When we arrived they packed his cage into the truck (a large, but cheaply made Super Pet type that PetCo sells, you know the kind, purple with a slide). There was a good pound of Carefresh bedding packed into the lower level, with a corner litter pan inside, and on top he had a Marshall hanging ferret bed. They handed me a partially used bag of Yesterday's News ferret litter and a large bag of barely used Marshall's crud. Then they handed "Bob" to me.
Where he hadn't been fazed before, this time he was trembling. I think he knew that somehow this transfer was different. The children said their good-byes and I thought for a moment I might cry at how sad the eldest girl looked. He was obviously very well-loved during the year they'd been trying to find him a home. I've since sent them an e-mail inviting them over to see him anytime.
On the ride home I had to take him out of the pet carrier as he became frantic and started clawing all over, so I held him and bent to kiss his head and fuzzy started licking my neck and cheek, then curled up into a ball and fell asleep in my lap!
My heart about exploded with happiness.
I put a drop of Rescue Remedy in some fresh water in his lock-crock when we got home, and rubbed a drop behind his ears as well, though he probably didn't even need it, with how calm and happy he was. We let him get used to his new surroundings that night and most of the next day, in his old cage. On Sunday I mixed up a one-ounce bottle of human-grade Wild Alaskan Salmon Oil and Organic, Cold-Pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I smeared it on his tummy, and to my joy he began licking right away so I was able to trim his very long nails with ease. After that he received a Zoom-Groom-ing and a bath (I used the Unscented All-Over bar from Bubble and Bee, great stuff) to get the dander off him. I am mildly allergic and his cage gave me a terrible headache. We took it out, and put him in his new Ferret Nation 142 with the Treasure Planet theme courtesy of the wonderful Rose German of LFFR and a pirate ship. I have had this bedding set since April of last year, just waiting. It's been an interminable wait, but so worth it:
Right now we are thinking we will call him Teddy, for Theodore, which is greek for "Gift from God" because he truly is a little angel ferret. Not only because of his story, but because all he wants is to kiss you, be petted and held and go to sleep in your arms. He plays a teeny bit but he still seems to need to learn how. He is truthfully more affectionate than our cats are. Maybe even more than our dog. And on top of it all, he has not had ONE mistake outside his litter box, which is on the lower level - he runs right down to it when he needs to go and when he's out playing never messes on the carpet. Incredible!
This is his new little hemp cloth purse carrier thing I got from Whole Foods for him on Monday, on sale ($25, was $40!) -
Sorry for the poor picture qualities, Peter used his camera till we find mine - he took all these shots, a lot were difficult - look at what an interesting pattern he has on his back!
I can't find a tattoo in his ears or paw pads, so I have no idea where this mystery angel ferret originated from but he is obviously neutered. He is SO tiny, smaller even than the ferrets I fostered, so I wonder if he's MF but his lower coat speaks Real Canadian (shedding season).
Lower level of cage:
Investigating the sleepy sack -
What? Camera shy, you say?
Colors sort of off in some of these but once I find my camera it'll be better - he has SO many whiskers for a fuzzy! I love it!
He loves the jingle toy from Rose!
He has a cute bum.
Some painfully cute sleepy hammock pictures (he also loves to sleep in the round bed):
Video! Whoo! (Someone needs - please - to tell me how to embed to the forum, as I couldn't get any of the embed codes to work.)
I could write so much more, but I'd better cut this short. He has literally been going EVERYWHERE with us (prompting several stories), and Peter adores him too. We really couldn't be happier with our new baby.
At 1:50 p.m. we arrived at the Wilco parking lot in Battle Ground, WA. To my surprise, ten minutes later Benjamin arrived, with his three kids who appeared to be ages 14-10 (two girls and a boy) holding fuzzy. Heart beating rapidly, I stepped out of the truck. The eldest girl, and the one who looked the most worried, walked up to me.
"This is Bob," she said, and handed him to me. It was love at first sight. Bob made a show of sniffing my nose, and was remarkably calm for a fuzz being handed to someone else. No flailing at all. I commented on his cute little mitts, then handed him to Peter to hold.
"Cute little guy," Peter said.
"I was managing some apartments up in Seattle when I got a call to come to one of the vacant apartments, and he had been left there for 3 weeks without food or water. He was almost dead," Benjamin said, shaking his head.
"And he was just a kit?" I asked, appalled.
"Yes, he was just a little thing," he replied sadly.
Peter and I murmured our disgust.
"If you like him, I have his cage, food, and litter at our house, and you can just follow me over there," Benjamin said.
I looked at Peter pointedly.
"Okay!" Peter said, grinning.
Benjamin looked at his kids -
"You guys approve?"
Their heads bobbed up and down.
I asked the kids if they would like to hold "Bob" on the drive back home to say their good-byes, and they wanted to, so we drove over without him. When we arrived they packed his cage into the truck (a large, but cheaply made Super Pet type that PetCo sells, you know the kind, purple with a slide). There was a good pound of Carefresh bedding packed into the lower level, with a corner litter pan inside, and on top he had a Marshall hanging ferret bed. They handed me a partially used bag of Yesterday's News ferret litter and a large bag of barely used Marshall's crud. Then they handed "Bob" to me.
Where he hadn't been fazed before, this time he was trembling. I think he knew that somehow this transfer was different. The children said their good-byes and I thought for a moment I might cry at how sad the eldest girl looked. He was obviously very well-loved during the year they'd been trying to find him a home. I've since sent them an e-mail inviting them over to see him anytime.
On the ride home I had to take him out of the pet carrier as he became frantic and started clawing all over, so I held him and bent to kiss his head and fuzzy started licking my neck and cheek, then curled up into a ball and fell asleep in my lap!
My heart about exploded with happiness.I put a drop of Rescue Remedy in some fresh water in his lock-crock when we got home, and rubbed a drop behind his ears as well, though he probably didn't even need it, with how calm and happy he was. We let him get used to his new surroundings that night and most of the next day, in his old cage. On Sunday I mixed up a one-ounce bottle of human-grade Wild Alaskan Salmon Oil and Organic, Cold-Pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I smeared it on his tummy, and to my joy he began licking right away so I was able to trim his very long nails with ease. After that he received a Zoom-Groom-ing and a bath (I used the Unscented All-Over bar from Bubble and Bee, great stuff) to get the dander off him. I am mildly allergic and his cage gave me a terrible headache. We took it out, and put him in his new Ferret Nation 142 with the Treasure Planet theme courtesy of the wonderful Rose German of LFFR and a pirate ship. I have had this bedding set since April of last year, just waiting. It's been an interminable wait, but so worth it:
Right now we are thinking we will call him Teddy, for Theodore, which is greek for "Gift from God" because he truly is a little angel ferret. Not only because of his story, but because all he wants is to kiss you, be petted and held and go to sleep in your arms. He plays a teeny bit but he still seems to need to learn how. He is truthfully more affectionate than our cats are. Maybe even more than our dog. And on top of it all, he has not had ONE mistake outside his litter box, which is on the lower level - he runs right down to it when he needs to go and when he's out playing never messes on the carpet. Incredible!
This is his new little hemp cloth purse carrier thing I got from Whole Foods for him on Monday, on sale ($25, was $40!) -
Sorry for the poor picture qualities, Peter used his camera till we find mine - he took all these shots, a lot were difficult - look at what an interesting pattern he has on his back!
I can't find a tattoo in his ears or paw pads, so I have no idea where this mystery angel ferret originated from but he is obviously neutered. He is SO tiny, smaller even than the ferrets I fostered, so I wonder if he's MF but his lower coat speaks Real Canadian (shedding season).
Lower level of cage:
Investigating the sleepy sack -
What? Camera shy, you say?
Colors sort of off in some of these but once I find my camera it'll be better - he has SO many whiskers for a fuzzy! I love it!
He loves the jingle toy from Rose!
He has a cute bum.
Some painfully cute sleepy hammock pictures (he also loves to sleep in the round bed):
Video! Whoo! (Someone needs - please - to tell me how to embed to the forum, as I couldn't get any of the embed codes to work.)
I could write so much more, but I'd better cut this short. He has literally been going EVERYWHERE with us (prompting several stories), and Peter adores him too.
We really couldn't be happier with our new baby. 
He is a darling 
I'll keep looking for the bar but I don't see it...I heard that some Marshall's don't have the dots but that's all I've seen. 
I have one that I picked up last night who is ready to graduate in a day or two 
