Bob Church and our ferrets

What an incredible evening!

Bob Church and two of his friends who are helping him with his DNA collection, Lori Sies and Richard Clark, came over to our house to add our awesome foursome to his database, all thanks to Dianne, the president of WAFFS, who organised it, and what a thrill it was!

Philip and I had "spoken" to Bob on the Ferret Chat Server back in 1997 during the Kodo fiasco, when we were all trying desperately to do whatever we could to stop poor Kodo from being euthanised. We had become quite friendly but had lost touch over the years.


I was really disappointed that I wasn't able to get over to Melbourne to attend the Symposium and thought I had lost my chance to meet Bob in person because I knew his calendar was full when he was here in Perth. But Dianne was a real sweetie and organised for Bob & co to come over here this evening and it was really lovely to be able to talk about the old times with him.



Lori, who was his right hand man (so to speak), is the lady who was the organiser of the DMK ferret rescue in Ohio last September. 

It was great to sit around chatting but I knew they still had to have dinner, and Lori and Richard were heading back to the States later tonight, so I brought out the gang and the DNA collection commenced!




Seamus, Angus & Muis are getting swabbed by Bob. Shona (from WAFFS) is taking the notes while Lori was helping to weigh all the ferrets, as well as snipping some fur off each ferret's rump to include with the DNA swab. All very fascinating :-)

The whole process took about 1/2 an hour and Bob even showed me how to brush Muis' teeth! He checked all the ferrets' teeth and she was the only one with a little bit of tartar so he said I needed to get a kid's toothbrush and some baby toothpaste (with no fluoride in it).

I had both sitting in the bathroom for when our granddaughter comes visiting so I got that and gave it to Bob (don't worry, I won't be brushing Imogen's teeth with that brush again ;-)). Muis is the worst ferret patient I have ever had - she is impossible to scruff as she manages to somehow shrink her skin so that you can't get a good grip on her neck, and even Bob found it hard to grab her but he won in the end!

So you scruff the ferret and put it so it lies belly up, with its feet tucked under your armpit, and then you place the brush by its mouth and brush!

Muis was not impressed and she flicked the brush away, making the toothpaste fly off and land on the floor, but Bob continued and she calmed down after a bit. Now I know, and I will try to do it myself tomorrow! Should be a laugh, if nothing else ;-)

The time for them all to leave came all too quickly but after hugs and good wishes, leave they did.

We would have never known, let alone met, these lovely American ferret owners had it not been for the Internet so I must tip my hat to Tim Berners-Lee for inventing it :-)

Update on the mink kit

Hasn't he grown into a stunningly handsome young man? What an absolute sweetheart - how I wish I could physically hug him :-)

I confess to being just a little nervous when I hadn't heard from the lady for a while, hoping that it wasn't because the little one had died so I was really pleased to get her email and see the photo she sent.

She said that she'd taken him to the Zoo Zoom to live because she couldn't look after him herself and putting him back into the wild wasn't an option as he was a friendly, dependent little thing. She'd done a lot of research of wildlife sanctuaries around Louisiana and picked Zoo Zoom because they would make him into a little mink ambassador and when they showed him to all the kids, they would also teach the kids about minks. Sounds like a good idea to me!

Poor lady said she cried all the way back home after she dropped him off, because she'd become so attached to him. I'm not surprised, having raised him since he was a tiny tot -- it must have been so emotional to have to give him to someone else but I'm sure she made the right choice.

So, if any of my readers happen to live in Louisiana and get to see Zoo Zoom, please keep your eye out for the little mink and if you do get to hold him, please give him a hug from me :-)

The Ferret Symposium is over

and from what I read in The Age, it was well populated and certainly an enjoyable weekend!

How I wish I could have attended - the mind was willing but my body couldn't have coped. However Shirley did say that Bob Church and Bill Gruber and his wife are coming to Perth to stay a few days with Shirley so if there's time, I'll be going over to say hi.

I remember chatting to Bill Gruber during the Kodo saga, way back in 1997, and it certainly was an energetic experience to be involved with so many other ferret people around the world, trying to get Kodo a pardon. I was heartbroken that we didn't succeed but at least we tried.

How my mustelid stole my mustard lid - haw haw haw :-))

And which mustelid stole my mustard lid.................... ???????

The one, and the only --- ta da --- SEAMUS O'TROUBLE!!!!!! :-)))

Oh goodness gracious me ... I have never known such an intelligently mischievously naughty ferret as Seamus!

Last Sunday was our Easter, as I already said. Because the weather forecast predicted storms on the day, Alexia and Dustin very kindly offered the use of their house for the lunch, as they could sit 30 people happily inside while we couldn't.

We prepared everything and used our dining table as a place to put stuff we were taking to Alexia's. One of the many items to take was a large saucepan with a pile of new potatoes and a jar of dill weed in it so that I could sprinkle the dill over the potatoes once they were boiled.

Fine!

We loaded up the car to the rafters and arrived at Alexia and Dustin's, unpacked and put everything in place in her kitchen. I looked inside the saucepan and couldn't find the jar of dill weed.

I admit I was quite grumpy with poor old Philip, accusing him of forgetting to bring it and he shook his head, saying no - he didn't remove anything. As Alexia had fresh dill there, it wasn't a problem.

The poor guy - the things he has to put up with a cranky old wife and four frisky ferrets ;-)

A wonderful lunch followed and when it was time to go we packed up the car to head back home. By the time we got home I was completely pooped so asked Philip to just plonk all the stuff down on the dining table and I'd sort everything out the next day.

There wasn't much to clear up the next day but I put whatever needed to be put away and everything was sweet.

It was about 5pm and we were both sitting down, watching TV ... and I saw Philip looking quizzically behind my chair.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"What's that on the floor behind your chair?" he asked me.

"Eh?" I replied, totally confused.

I got up from the chair and looked, and there, lying on its side, was the brand new squeezy bottle of American mustard -- one of the ones we took to Alexia's.

I picked it up and burst out laughing. The red top had been removed, the foil which was on top of the bottle (it was brand new) had gone and there was what looked suspiciously like a nose imprint in the mustard.

That wretched silvermitt boy of mine had got onto the dining table and taken the bottle out of the cardboard box, where it was with the other mustards (mind you, all of the others were in glass jars) and he'd jumped off the table (mustard bottle in his mouth - obviously), taken it into the sitting room behind my chair, twisted off the top and then yanked off the foil top.

I really, really wish I had been there to see his face when he'd stuck his nose into the mustard! It would have been an absolute hoot! Where is the video camera when you need it - hahaha!

In a way I'm sorry it wasn't hot English mustard, because that would have certainly taught him a lesson not to steal mustard bottles :-)

After dinner I asked Philip to tip over the sofa, because that's where Seamus stashes all his goodies and there was the red top, in all its glory but ... not only the top BUT ALSO the jar of dill weed!

* sigh *

The mind boggles why he found a spice jar attractive enough to steal and I had to make high level grovelling to Philip for accusing him of forgetting to bring that!

One thing is for sure ... life is never dull with a silvermitt called Seamus in the house ;-))

Cute ferret photos ...

How incredibly cute is the ferret in this photo?!! And, more to the point, how did they get the ferret to just sit there with its paws folded, mmm?

Surely one of life's great mysteries :-)

There are a couple of other photos on this site and it seems that the pictures are of 3 different ferrets -- brothers and sister -- and again, I wonder how the photographer got them to sit so still!

No one would be able to look at those little creatures and not agree that ferrets are simply the most adorable and sweetest animals in the world :-))

Warning about the dangers of sugarless gum

I just came across a news article about a guy who claims that one of his ferrets died and another went into seizures after chewing on a packet of sugarless gum which they got hold of.

He was told by a veterinarian that xylitol, a chemical which is used to give the gum its sweetness without the calories, can be lethal to animals and if this poor ferret did, indeed, die because of chewing on the gum, then it obviously is very lethal.

So, I guess if any ferret owners like chewing on sugarless gum, please make sure it's kept completely out of reach of your pets, like you would with medicines, etc.

Christos Voskrese to all my Russian Orthodox ferret friends :-)

Christos Anesti to all my Greek ferret friends too! And, of course, best wishes to all the other Eastern Orthodox ferret owners for a very happy Easter!

I am sure you'll have all a wonderful day tomorrow and no doubt everyone will remember to wear pants with elastic waistbands so that they can pack all the good things in at lunchtime without trouble! Haha!

This is how I feel right now, having spent the whole day in the kitchen making various goodies for tomorrow ...

But, thank heavens for little girls, as our daughters are doing all the big things like the kulich and paskha. The weather forecast is for showers and thunderstorms - oy! But it will still be an awesome day and all the people who come are hanging out to see our ferrets again so they definitely will be the stars on the day.

It's always a great thing to be able to show people what super little pets ferrets make and dispel their reputation of being smelly, bitey, antisocial animals, isn't it :-)