Ferret-World has published an excellent article relating to the dangers of our pet ferrets and their risk of getting COVID-19.
Spoiler alert! I was very relieved to find out that our pet ferrets are at low risk of catching the coronavirus from an infected human in their family and likewise an infected pet ferret is at very low risk of passing the virus to their humans.
So please take the time to read this wonderful article.
pop goes the weasel
love the play on words in the title. Once again our Annual Spring Frolic had major rainfall and this year it decided to be bitterly cold too! Some folks came out in winter jackets!
It always amazes me how hardy Winnipegers are and Winnipeg ferret owners are the best of them! What a nice turnout on such a rainy day. I drove Fred (our President) crazy worrying about the chance of rain. Every day he got a phone call from me lamenting the forecast! I am a certified worry wort! Inherited it when I married into the Kelley family! I was more my mother in law Mumsee’s daughter than her daughters lol. I totally got it when she worried out loud! She would be proud of my worry wort status!
So, back to our frolic. When I realized that we were going to have rain, I quickly dragged out our indoor games to bring to the frolic. I must say the rain stopped long enough to host the Great Tube Race and Sail Boat Race. We had 12 ferrets ready to race through the tubes. Dieter’s ferret Gus was the first to completely exit his tube followed closely by Tia’s Banjo and Colleen old 14 year old ferret Tank!
The Sail Boat Race had 9 ferret competitors. Each sail boat had a 1/4 teaspoon of Ferretone to entice the ferret to stay in the sail boat while their owner pulled it along the wet grass to the finish line. Airel’s Jack beat Dee’s Nibbler by a nose! There was one ferret (sorry but I didn’t get the name) who absolutely refused to stay in the sail boat Ferretone or not!
We also had the Great Paper Sack Escape. I don’t have the notes on this one but I do know that several ferrets thought it was time for a nap. One ferret was determined to wake said sleepyheads up and tried to drag a ferret out of his paper sack. I hope I am right to say that Ariel’s Kazooie popped out first with Dieter’s Gus a close second!
The last ferret game was Pop Goes the Weasel. We had a longish box with 3 round holes cut out in it. The ferret owner had to choose which hole the ferret would exit. We had 12 ferret owners betting that they could tell which hole their ferret would pop out of. The first one up was Kyle with Serenity. Now, Kyle is a first time ferret owner who had just recently adopted his girls from the shelter. Yup, you guessed it. He went first with Serenity. He chose #3 and his girl lovingly popped out of #3. I hope she got extra treats for that one! No one else’s ferret would listen and choose the right number. One beautiful silver ferret really played games by teasing. The furry would half pop out of the chosen hole, go back in, half pop out of a different number. Repeat several times until the furry exited the wrong number! Lots of laughter during those antics!
We have lots of great pictures on our Flckr account. Go to our website yo view them!
Looking forward to next year’s event! hopefully without the rain!
This is never a pleasant topic of discussion. What would happen to my beloved ferrets (really all your pets) if something happened to me? Well my spouse or partner would take over! But what if both of you are involved in the same accident and pass away? Well my adult children would take them! Are you sure? It’s nice to think that our immediate or extended family would jump in and take our pets but life isn’t always fair. Our family may not like our ferrets, may have pets that would not get along with your pets or maybe they just don’t have the room to take in anymore.
My son and his wife went to Grand Forks for the weekend. I went over each day to feed and play with my two grand cats. Now I love these two cats. We had cats when my sons were growing up. However, if something happened to the both of them; what happens to their cats. As much as I love them; they would not fit well in my home. My dog Miki would not be impressed and of course Raven and Salem would most definitely be scare of the dog. Then of course I have many fostered and personal ferrets in my home. Again, Raven and Salem would not be impressed by being chased around the house by my furries. Perhaps my daughter in laws parents would take them but, I don’t think they are cat people. Now who would take their cats? I know how much they love them and I would never place them in a shelter but what would I do? I guess I would be down to seeing if any of their friends would take them and hope that I am doing the right thing.
Two years ago Helen, our Winnipeg Beach Shelter Mom was killed on her way home from work. When family called to come get her ferrets it was a nightmare. Helen had not gotten around to hanging the pictures with documentation on the 5 different cages. In my shock, I did not grab my back up shelter documentation book. Jeanne and I spent an hour trying to match ferrets with their names and documentation. We even forgot one ferret whom Helen had left out to play while she was at work. Fortunately we hadn’t gone too far before family called to say a ferret had appeared at their feet. We were carrying pet carriers and food and stuff out of the house. We were not watching for loose ferrets. Thank goodness she didn’t escape outside or worse left behind with no food or water.
Helen also had a dog named Dudley. He was a goofy mutt who loved the ferrets and that is why Helen tolerated his accidents in the house. I knew I couldn’t take him as I had two dogs at home at that time. I loved Dudley and was so worried what would happen to him. Her family were not pet people and I knew they wouldn’t want him. Thank goodness a neighbor stepped up and took him. He would have ended up in a shelter and euthanized as he wasn’t completely housebroken. That would have broken Helen’s heart!
The lesson I learnt was thank goodness I was an “organized freek” because if the roles had been reversed, family and friends would have had no trouble knowing which ferrets belonged to me personally and which ferrets had to be re-homed within the shelter community. All my cages are labelled. I have their picture and on the backside are a the most important details. I even have a copy of their latest vaccinations.
Several months ago, our former webmaster Teraysa passed away suddenly. Family called us. She had one ferret in the top cage and two in the bottom half. A huge bucket of food and treats nearby. Taking the ferrets wasn’t a problem. Trying to figure out their names and ages was something else. I had to scan through all her pictures that she had posted on her Face Book page. Thank goodness she loved to post pictures of her pets. The one ferret I thought I knew wasn’t. That ferret had passed away about a year prior. Thank goodness she had posted a RIP for that ferret and then pictures of the new baby! We had their names but no information on when their vaccines were done. We never did get any documentation from her family as they sorted through her stuff.
Besides my ferrets, I have a miniature Eskimo dog, 10 years old now. If something should happen to me, I have plans in place for her to be taken care of. I have not left that burden to my family, none of whom could take her.
Years ago, we developed a short check list for our members so that they could plan and organize responsibility for their ferrets and other pets. The hand out was given to all new ferret owners but as it is a sensitive topic I am sure it was quickly misplaced. I went looking for my hand out and found it in my files. I have revised it a bit and I am posting it below so anybody with pets will be reminded that they should make plans for their pets in case something happens!
Assigning Responsibility for your Pets
It is important to make arrangements for the care of your ferret in case you are incapacitated through illness or injury or in the event of your untimely death.
At the shelter, on the back of each picture of the ferret is the date of surrender. We also list Gender, Age, Color type, and then there are several lines for notes such as: climber, best friend is……..
Your family may remember that you have a banditt and a Loki but these names are not gender specific and they will not remember who is who! The more info you can provide the better your ferrets and or other pets will be cared for.
Updated: June 2017
There has been a rule at my home for many years. Ferrets in hand or ferrets in cage before any outside door is ever opened. Never assume your ferret is still asleep under the bed or behind the TV when you open your door to the outside world to bring in the newspaper, put the garbage out…… whatever!!!
We implemented this rule after one of our shelter ferrets did a walk about without our knowledge! In other words he escaped the house! My hubby Guy had let our 225 pound English Mastiff outside to go potty and right back in. One Eyed Jack was supposedly asleep behind the TV. We had both giggled as he dragged a stuffy with him to sleep with behind the TV.
One Eyed Jack was a stray found by the river and brought to us. He had tangled with something and his one eyed was beyond saving. We patched him up and he became part of our shelter family. Now he had escaped from his original owners so we should have known he had a bit of the wonderlust in him!
So, Ari went potty and came right back in. We all settled down to continue watching TV. Guy heard this scratching sound. I didn’t hear anything. Ari was doing what mastiffs do best, snoring up a storm. Guy muted the TV and insisted he heard scratching. He got up and went to the front door.(We had not installed a second door – screen door at that time). He opened it and in waltzes One Eyed Jack!
OMG and other assorted expletives. It seems One Eyed Jack had snuck out with the dog. He had his little walk about in the back yard, then went under the gate, up the driveway, up the sidewalk, up 4 very high cement steps and was scratching on the door to be let in. We hadn’t realized he was out. Had he not scratched to be let back in, it would have been at least an hour when our show ended before we would have realized he was missing. If our screen door had been added back then, would Guy have heard the scratching?
We dodged a bullet that day. Today I dodged another bullet. I had Zipper, Zora and Tank out playing in the bedroom. They spent some time playing in the bedroom, then I was giving them a little free range time before I put them to bed. I looked out the living room window to see two crows sizing up my small birds at the feeder. Yes the law of nature is eat or be eaten but not on my watch and not today when I was already not having the best of days. I quickly opened the front door and the screen door, stepped out on to the front steps and shooed the crows away. I closed the screen door; remembered my rule and looked out the screen door window to make sure no ferrets were dancing on the steps. All clear. Good! I closed the screen door and the front door. It’s cold today!
About fifteen minutes later I decided to round up the 3 furries and put them back to bed. Tank was sleeping in the sleep sack back in the bedroom. Zipper was sleeping in the ladybug back in the bedroom . I can’t find Zorra in the bedroom sleep areas. I start with the bedroom and start looking. No Zora. I close the bedroom door and move on to the shelter room. I checked everywhere in the shelter, no Zora. I then checked their cage. Yes, sometimes, she puts herself back to bed and maybe I am panicking for nothing. Nope, not in the cage.
Oh God, I opened the front door to shoo the crows away. My mind screams no way she got out! She is not in the house, so yeah, she has to be outside. Great! 30 minutes head start at least! Where to even start! I am ferret sitting these three; what will Colleen say when I tell her I’ve lost her little girl! By now I am in tears and fighting a panic attack. Find ferret and then have your damn melt down!
With squeak toy in hand I opened my front door. Did I mention that I have a screen door and then my front door. I look down as I reach for the screen door handle and there she is! Zora was huddled in that small gap between the front door and screen door.
Relief flooded over me. Thank god she was tiny enough that I hadn’t squashed her between the doors. I guess when I peered through the screen door to see if any ferrets had gotten out on to the steps Zora must have been right at my feet. I didn’t see ferrets on the front step, so I closed the front door without looking down.
Zora washed my face with kisses and I snuggled her so hard her eyes could have popped. No bad news to give Colleen. My world righted itself once again. Now that the crisis is over, let me share my rule with all you ferret owners who think it can’t happen to me because I’m always careful- yes it can happen to you! I have run the main shelter for 20 years and you’d think I would be smarter!……………………FERRET IN HAND OR FERRET IN CAGE BEFORE OPENING ANY DOORS TO THE OUTSIDE!
By the way, just so you all know, a stray ferret was surrendered to our shelter on Saturday evening. The ferret was found wandering a rural property and has yet to be claimed! Now this is Easter weekend with many family gatherings that started on Good Friday right through to Easter Monday. Lots of get togethers, people coming and going! Somebody out there is bawling their eyes out while searching for their ferret. I just hope they call.
Deb, shamed ferret mom
Irwin’s Tail
I apologize for the pun, I don’t claim responsibility for it. I found this tale fully formed in my head. I think a mischievous little fella must have stashed it there before he scampered off across the rainbow bridge. He knew I’d be needing it.
Our ferrets Loki and Selene have little stubs of tails. Their momma thought they were too perfect so she cleaned a little off the ends so as not to overwhelm us. Our foster ferret Sophie has a fuzzy little tail that spikes out like a pipe cleaner when she gets excited, which seems to be the majority of the time. It is the perfect tail for her fuzzy little body.
Our other foster Irwin had a scrawny tail. It was a perfect match for his scrawny little body which nicely offset the most handsome little face that ever sat atop a ferret’s neck.
Each of them is the best ferret ever. Logic dictates that this isn’t possible but they exist within the domain of ferret math which doesn’t give a toss about logic!
Irwin and Sophie didn’t get along with other ferrets, Loki and Selene included. They each knew the other was the perfect amount of ferret and they must have thought it selfish to require any additional company. We tried to merge the two pairs into one happy business but they were not having it. Others had tried before with equal results. They had a good life at the shelter but luckily their shelter momma Deb in her wisdom decided we were worthy of their love despite our relative lack of experience.
The two pairs carved out a piece of my heart and each ferret nabbed their own half of that. Through the magic of ferret math, each one ended up with the whole damn thing!
It is a lot of work juggling ferrets but we managed, gating off one pair and swapping them now and then to keep things interesting. Add in our crazy cat Luna and it can be utter madness. Every second has been worth the effort.
We lost Irwin today to liver cancer. He would have suffered through the pain to keep sharing his love with us and his girl but we could not ask any more of him. He lived his life to the end with a joy only a ferret or someone touched by the love of a ferret could know. In the end we took on some pain so we could release him from his. We will never replace him in his girl Sophie’s heart but I hope we can ease her pain by giving her some of the love he stashed in our hearts.
I’m not writing this to share my sadness. Irwin left a ferret-shaped hole in my heart which will never disappear but he filled my heart to overflowing with love before he left. In time, the sadness will fade and I will have the memories to keep me going. At the height of my pain I wished we had never taken him in so I would not have to feel this way but I know I would be the poorer for never having known him.
Irwin left an itch in my brain so I would scratch it out into this story. Sometimes the perfect ferret is the one quietly waiting in the back of the shelter for someone to realize they need him more than anything in the world. They might have a stub of a tail or they may need a little bit of extra care and attention but they will pay that back a hundred times over.
Manitoba Ferret Association 
