Lulu is a tiny sable female that was surrendered to the main shelter in 2016.  I think her young owner did not understand how important it is to handle baby ferrets and to teach them not to bite. So at eighteen months when Lulu arrived; she bit hard enough to still draw blood and she was afraid of hands.

After a few months Lulu had learnt not to bite Mommy. Unfortunately, she bonded to Mommy and did not trust other hands.  We are still working on this issue by having a couple of volunteers coming in and handling the ferrets including Lulu to get them used to/trust all hands.

Lulu was moved into the the youngsters cage. This cage has Corky, Pepsi, Cola, and Mouse. Corky, Cola and Mouse have no issue with Lulu and play or snuggle with her.  Miss Pepsi is another matter. She intermittently takes a round out of poor Lulu! There is much screaming and such when this happens.  I don’t want to put her by herself because she has fun with the other three.  I correct Pepsi every time I hear her picking on Lulu. However, there are enough times (I am out of the house or asleep) that Pepsi gets away with it, and so she continues. Pepsi and Cola came in together and I will not take her away from her sister. Corky and Mouse love them all.  What a dilemma.

I found a small hanging sleep sack (surrendered with another ferret years ago) and decided to put it in their cage for Lulu.  If she climbed inside maybe she would feel safer from Pepsi and could defend her “space”. Eureka! Lulu made a beeline for this sleep sack and claimed it.  I only hear some squawking now when Pepsi tries to climb into Lulu’s sack.

I only had this one hanging sleep sack and this made things difficult for Lulu when it was in the wash.  Adrienne, the shelter’s ferret Oma got busy and made Lulu several hanging sleep sacks just for her.  Now I can have two hanging on the bars of the cage and two in the wash.

It was cage cleaning today, so I got busy and hung up the new sleep sack.  Lulu and crew were running around but somehow Lulu seemed to know what I was up to.  Or maybe seeing the dirty one on the floor she was worrying about what she would sleep in? All I know is that she climbed into the cage over my shoulder to check things out.  I had my cell phone in my pocket (not a normal thing for me which is why I miss so many good shots).  I took a few quick pictures; no time for posing!

Lulu climbed into the new hanging sleep sack. Sniffed around I assume and then peeked out at me.  I think she was tickled pink to have this slightly larger, softer hanging sleep sack.  I took Lulu out so that she could finish her play time.  When they all went back to bed Lulu jumped into her sleep sack and no one went near her sack. She must have had a few words with her sisters about who “owned” the new sleep sack Mommy hung in the cage.  All is peaceful FOR NOW.  Pepsi can be stubborn and she is an alpha girl………………….. so I hung two so they both could “claim” a hanging sleep sack.