Well, today is rather warm, especially inside my house as the AC doesn't seem to be doing much more than circulating allergens. (Gotta love spring in South Texas *glares at giant oak tree in front yard*) I was cage cleaning, since my darling ferrets believe that a new cage means they no longer have to use the litter box, and I realized that despite the fan directed at them and the frozen water bottles in socks for them to cuddle up to and their 2 water dispensers being half-filled with ice, they were panting. PANTING! Ferrets don't pant unless they are extremely hot. Their bodies don't have a well-developed system to deal with excess heat. They don't sweat, for example, and much like with cats, panting is not overly effective at dispersing the heat. So I added another fan and a few more frozen water-bottles-in-socks, but decided the best thing to do for immediate relief would be cool baths. It was nail-clipping day anyway, so why not complete the indignity. (For those wondering why bath day is a big deal, there is a lot of debate in the ferret community over the negative impact of baths -- such as flaky, dry skin -- and the general recommendation is not more than once a month. Yes, I realize some people find their "odor" can be controlled by bathing frequently, but I'm not bothered by their "funk".)

Bath day with me is not really exciting for the ferrets. One by one, they get rinsed in the sink, shampoo'd up with a raspberry-scented ferret shampoo, rinsed again, and then quickly wrapped in a towel for a quick scrub, then put back in their newspaper-lined playpen to shake and roll themselves dry. Okay, the last bit is fun for them *grin*. But when their daddy was around, he took all 4 to the bathtub, stripped down, and joined them for a soak. They'd play in the water, swimming and splashing for up to an hour. So I'm sure they are disappointed to be stuck with mommy for the rest of their fuzzy lives, at least in terms of bath day.

Which gets me to thinking how much better their lives were when they had the both of us. They got to outside a lot for more, for one thing. After all, taking two ferrets each out and spending time as a couple while your fuzzy babies romped around in the dirt and fresh air was a lot easier and more fun than it is to take four ferrets out on your own. You find yourself tangled up in the leashes, having them try to go in four directions at once, and talking to yourself. Even worse is the threat of stray dogs. The first time I had all four out by myself, a stray dog came over excitedly to investigate and I couldn't gather all four up into my arms in time, so I had to toss myself on top of this poor beast, scruff him and hold him down until my neighbor saw my predicament and came to help. All the while, three of my "innocent" babies were "investigating" the dog and the fourth had broken out of his harness and run home (Thank God!). When the neighbor took the dog, I ran to my door, threw the three ferrets into the front room and climbed into the big bush to find the fourth. As soon as I had him, the neighbor released the dog and it went straight for the bush as if to find poor Chouji. And then there are the feral cats that set up a perimeter if I have all four out in the outside playpen. *sigh*

Of course, it's been one month since my wonderful man decided he doesn't have time to be in a relationship, so I am naturally quite down today. But I've resolved to pick up the pieces and slowly start getting back into the things that I enjoyed. One of the areas I have to focus on heavily is the ferrets. Because they are "ours", dealing with them has been very depressing and there was a time when I contemplated giving them up for adoption because they reminded me too forcefully of him. But now I see that as selfish childishness. If they were my human babies, I couldn't just do that! So with a fair bit of self-loathing, I am re-committing myself to their care. It doesn't help my mood that someone reminded me today that as early as 3 years of age is considered geriatric for ferrets. Tomo is nearing 2 and a half, Sasuke just turned 2 and Chouji will be 2 next month. Nami is nearing 1 and a half. That means in December, I will have a geriatric ferret! I'm supposed to feed her a different food, which will be a real challenge, not to mention all the extra diseases and special concerns I'll have to watch out for.

It hardly seems I have had them for so long. I guess I should stress that ferret ownership is NOT easy. They are terribly cute animals and have great personalities, but they are not like cats and dogs. I think I might write a post about ferret husbandry later, to explain that, but I am very leery of giving people the impression that they are "easy" pets because they live in cages. The main thing I want to point out is that they should NOT spend all their time in a cage. If my house were solely my own, I'd be able to free-range them more. That and if they'd hit their litterbox more often *sigh*. The other thing I'd point out is that they aren't naturally cuddlers, even though it's almost impossible not to want to cuddle them.

Well, I suppose I'll close this ramble with a few pics of the bath time aftermath. Enjoy.






These pics are in my ScrapBook with little descriptions. I'm not sure how to direct you to that area, but it is public as well.

EDIT: I can't believe I forgot this, but . . . GO SPURS GO! Awesome victory over the Suns last night! Spurs lead the series 3-0. SWEEP THE SUNS ON SUNDAY!!!!!!