Disclaimer: I know we brought this on ourselves. We adopted big, fat, young boy ferrets, and they’re made of snips and snails and puppy dog tails and they’re just being big fat young boy ferrets. I’m notreally angry at them. “Vermin” and “varmint” are terms of affection.
Now. I don’t know what it is this week. Astrology out of whack again? Moon phase not right? Heat making the beasties as crazy as it’s making me? For whatever reason, they’ve chosen this particular moment in time to be absolute monsters, climbing things we didn’t think they could climb (how did you get up THERE?!!?), finding new places to use as a latrine (I’ll just clean under the … eww), shredding important mail (I might NEED that credit card offer if this thing with the gas prices keeps up) and generally making unholy pests out of themselves.
And after they do something like, say, pry open the door to the recycling bin and make a nest out of all the paper and plastic, they give me these looks:
Which is why when I refer to them as “crow bait,” it’s said with a great deal of love.
A.
Ur papers: we resykled them for u
Could this be the time of the year when a young ferret’s fancy turns to love?
Out of curiosity, how would you compare them to cats? In my experience, male cats are a lot more on you, in your face attention while female cats like being with you, but at a distance. Also, males tend to be more the sessile, cats while females are a lot more motion oriented.
u need gurl ferret.
I recognize those faces! My crazy twin pussycats have them all the time:
MAMA! WE LOVE YOU! LOOK AT THESE AMAZING TOYS! WE FOUNDED THEM!
Then, of course, I call them “dog chow” and kiss their tiny noses.
MapleStreet, they’re both fixed, so it can’t be that.
In my experience the personalities don’t tend to vary too much by sex. Our Fox hated us unless we were feeding him, while Joey wanted to be if not actually in our laps, then at least on top of our feet, at all times. And of the present dingos, Riot is the attention whore while Puck for the most part couldn’t care less about what we’re doing.
A friend has almost exclusively girl ferrets, and hers are pretty needy, so I’m not sure it’s a girl-boy thing.
I think they’re just bored. It’s been too hot to take them for walks like I usually do when they get like this.
A.
I’ve had to engineer all my furniture so the plants can’t be climbed to or jumped to. Otherwise they just become sandboxes and the plants are killed in the unstoppable digging process.
Scolding a ferret is entirely pointless (exception: to make the dog feel superior.)
They’re also much better on leashes than cats.
Our dogs and cats have also been a bit restive this week. I pin it on the vernal equinox as we all seem to be sensitive to the effects. What can you do? Enjoy the silliness, ’cause we miss ’em when they’re gone.
I know that you regard them as pets, but it seems to me that they might see you accurately as servants.
Thanks for the info A.
My female cat is a calico and definitely fits the definition of a diva.
Initially, I couldn’t pick her up without her flipping out. But then found that she loves the curry comb (which looks like an instrument of torture to me).
As long as I’m combing her with that, I can do anything I want to and she doesn’t mind (even holding her head in my hand totally blocking her eyes and ears – I don’t do it because I’m mean, but rather I don’t want her to move her head and get poked in the eye with sharp metal).
I was actually able to use the comb as positive reinforcement to train her to let me pick her up.
When I enter the house, she screams and demands I comb her. I comb her, she eventually decides she has had enough and recuses herself to the bookshelf perch.
my three black Meezer girls are all driving me up the wall this week. My docile sweetheart kitty Shadow gets in the warmest spot she can find and after she’s as hot as a walking charcoal bricquet, she needs to lie down ON ME even though it’s over 105 degrees outside. Tonya, my little fat-ass prima-donna is extra flaky, love me one minute, hates me the next and absolutely cannot stand the presence of my 10 month old rescue baby Spooky, who while playful and affectionate is also a more than a little bit bitey when she plays with me lately and because she was abandoned by other residents of the complex and lived like a feral from the time she was 5 months until i found out where she was hiding and started feeding her before bringing her in when the weather got ridiculously hot last week i have had to keep her separate from Tonya and Shadow because she is still very skittish and prone to growling and hissing at either of them on sight.
Of course growling and hissing at strangers is Tonya’s favorite pastime, as all creatures who are not Me or Shadow are regarded by her about as well as Mexicans are regarded by Lou Dobbs
sorry if that last post rambled a bit, my customers and their poor communication skills are beginning to rub off on me