RIP Willow 2003-2011 and hello to Blossom and Tenacious P!

It's been far too long since I last updated my ferret activities. I've welcomed two new little girls into the house, had Marigold spayed, and said goodbye to Willow who finally decided it was time to just go to sleep forever.

Willow's passing was peaceful and not unexpected. The night before she had not seemed herself - much more tired than usual and more staggery. We had a lovely cuddle and she had a last meal of her favourite food and I tucked her up in a mound of fleeces. The next morning she'd gone, just curled up exactly as I'd left her, just gone to sleep never to wake again. While the loss of any pet is always terribly sad, I found myself cracking a small smile when I found her. If only all animals went this way. We had 9 glorious years, 9 years of prime health (the only time she ever went to the vet was when she was speyed) and 9 years of endless fun. So dear Willowkins, my super intelligent stasher of food and bin bags and eater of soap - sleep well and dook on.

The time she got into the coal bucket...

She had a thing for rolls of bin bags

and soap

The day I found her stash of food she'd stolen from the kitchen cupboard

She really did love her bin bags!

On to brighter and happier things...
I've got two new recruits, Blossom and Tenacious P. 

Tenacious P (formerly Celandine) is a stray who came into work that I just couldn't resist.  She's the very definition of what you think of when someone says ferret - long, slender and super agile.  A beautiful polecat jill with a lovely dark nose.

Tenacious P

I changed her name from Celandine just because it seemed a bit of a mouthful and didn't really suit her.  Originally I changed it to Polly, but after a few weeks the nickname Tenacious P was born and it just stuck.  It suit her down to the ground!  She has endless energy and she is by far the most agile ferret I have ever met.  She's a bit of a nipper at the moment but she's slowly learning what's acceptable and what isn't.  She loves going for walks up the road and I've now met a great many of my neighbours and think I might now been known as the crazy ferret lady of my road.  Generally though I've had a really positive response to her and it's given me the opportunity to set the record straight on ferrets reputations as savage snapping beasts.
She's not fully integrated with the others yet - she's pretty much ok with Roo and Strauss but Marigold will not leave her alone - she just chases Tenacious P endlessly, causing much screaming from Tenacious P and some horrific smells from Marigold.  I have no idea how something so small can produce such a smell of pure evil - the devil himself would run a mile from my little midget Marigold!  Things are improving slowly though and now that Marigold has been speyed I'm sure it'll all settle down soon.

My other new little fuzzy is Blossom.  Another stray but one I strongly suspect came from pretty poor accomodation originally.  She is a dear little soul but also clearly mentally damaged by some passed experience.  She exhibits signs of stereotypies, primarily intense weaving that is really quite disturbing to watch.  Here she is in the small run I put her in very briefly while I cleaned her main accomodation out:

Distressing isn't it?  This behaviour is primarily seen in mink and ferret kept in very small enclosures - usually in fur farms of laboratories. 

Blossom now lives in my conservatory with free run of the whole area 99% of the time.  On the odd occassion I have to shut her in to clean she's in my double story 6ft hutch and generally for no more than 30 minutes at a time. 
She loves people and bonded with me almost instantly - she had slight seperation anxiety issue when she first came home but we seem to be ok on that front now.  She is very affectionate and cuddly.  She comes out to have full run of my lounge every evening and we are slowly breaking the weaving habit - she will probably always exhibit the behaviour to some degree (stereotypies changes the neural pathways in the brain causing permenant 'damage') but with time and care we should be able to make it minimal.  She's already getting much better.  I'm not entirely sure she knows how to be a ferret - there is lots of 'normal' ferret behaviour that she doesn't exhibit - mostly ferret sillies, but for the first time last Tuesday she had a ferret funny five minutes and it was just the most delightful thing I've seen in a long time.  She really played and got excited and dooked and ran backwards and flipped about - GORGEOUS!  So we're getting there.
I'm not currently even trying to mix her in with the rest of the gang - if she sees another ferret she just launches herself at them and attacks.  This is stressful for her and my other ferrets.  She needs to gain more confidence before we attempt any introductions again.  It is possible that she will never accept another ferret and that she will have to remain a single ferret for ever.  This is not a problem as far as I am concerned because I have the space and time to keep her that way if necessary but hopefully one day she'll be able to live a full ferrety life in the company of others.  We'll just have to see.

Blossom