kisses – Manitoba Ferret Association

The 2015 members only Valentine’s Party was held on February 15th. The first human game “Steal Your Hearts” had folks picking up candy heart with CHOPSTICKS and transferring them into a dish. Sharon beat out everyone else with 12 candy hearts in 30 seconds. Sharon actually picked up 2 hearts at once and that put her in the lead from Sue’s 9 hearts. Sharon won a stuffed Frog for her fuzzies.

The first ferret related game was “Pick your Own Treat” We had 6 paper plates set in a circle. Each plate had a different treat on it. Bandit Chicken, Raisin and Bacon, Ferret Chews, Ferretone and Chicken Temptations. You placed your ferret in the circle and guessed which treat he would not just sniff at but actually eat! Both of Rena’s ferrets Jack and Baby chose her guess of the Ferretone. Sharon’s Sara correctly chose the Chicken Chew stick and her Diago correctly chose the Ferretone. All the correct guesses went into a draw and Sharon’s Sara won a stuffed Bear holding a heart!

Our next human game was the Left/Right Story told by our Melissa. You had to pass the gift to the person on your left or right as the story unfolded. You would think this is easy but after a bit, left became right and had you confused as hell. The gift ended with Andy who took home a stuffed puppy and a crinkle toy.

The Most Kisses in 30 seconds was hilarious in that only 2 ferrets deemed their owners worthy of kisses this year. Rena’s Jack gave her 5 kisses however Zoe’s Radish bestowed a whopping 25 smooches to win a stuffed Tiger which he promptly clamped on to and wouldn’t let go of!

Our net human game, Cupid’s Arrow turned out to be much harder than it looked. You had to BLOW a Q-Tip through a straw into a Valentine Pot. Zoe and Leslie sitting on the love seat behind the coffee table ended up “shot” with the Q’Tip arrows over and over. Dare I say everyone was full of hot air and overshot the mark! Melissa managed to get one Q-Tip arrow into the pot to win a Happy Face stuffy and mouse toy!

The Lightest ferret went to Dan and Melissa’s Bellie at 1 pound 07 ozs slipping past Nibbles at 1 pound 09 ozs and the Heaviest ferret went to Zoe’s Turnip at 3 pounds 06 ozs skipping past Duncan at 3 pounds 03 ozs.

The next game should have come with a warning to use the bathroom before we started. The game was very simple. Place cookie on forehead and move the cookie into your mouth. Easy Peasy! RIGHT! The facial contortions, the tongue antics, the shoulder wiggles, the desperate rolling on the floor trying to keep the cookie off the floor; honestly, you had to be there. If our wonderful photographer had taken a full length video, there would be much bribing to keep the video of the net!! Much laughter till some of use almost peed ourselves. All the successful cookie grabbers names went into the draw and Brandon won the squeeky bird and cat toy.

The final game of the day was pin the lips on the Heart Valentine. Brandon cleaned up by placing his lips almost on top of the lip outline!

Adrienne brought a lovely tray of cookies and tarts, Sharon had crisps and dips and Deb provided the tea, coffee, pop and potato chips.

All in all, it was a terrific party. All the ferrets socialized with only a few spats. Fred took lots and lots of pictures and we invite you to view them on our Flicker account.

So yesterday was a fun day! I posted that I cleaned a gazillion litter boxes, changed bedding and clipped toe nails. I even bathed 4 naughty ferrets.

This was an all day adventure and I had a continuous cup of coffee going. I would simply top up my cup when it go low or too cold.

The coffee cup followed me from chore to chore. When I do the nails, I place a towel on my counter. I then place the ferret on the towel on its back, add the Ferretone (discontinued in 2020, substitute with Salmon Oil or Olive Oil or Flax Oil) to the tummy and clip away while he is licking the oil. This is easiest for me as I have a bad back and bending over a ferret sitting on my lap wouldn’t be to bad if I was only doing one or two, but, I have lots of fuzzbutts to do. The clipped toe nail ends accumulate in the towel and a few go flying here and there.

This morning I decided that I should do up my dishes from yesterday and today. Not much to do, a plate, bowl, a bit of cutlery and my coffee cup. I poured out the last dregs of coffee and just happened to look down. Yucky, Yucky, Yucky, I had ferret toe nail bits at the bottom of my cup! (do the mental picture here because I couldn’t get a good picture, the nail bits came out looking like bits of worms which looks even grosser). I guess I had my coffee cup just a tad too close on the counter. I am going to pretend that I didn’t swallow any yesterday!

I am known for letting my ferrets kiss my lips, nose, teeth and ear lobs. I have offered my ferrets a lick of yogurt from my spoon and then finished off the spoon. I have let my ferrets lick the smooth peanut butter off my toast and then finished the toast. I am sure I have more germs in my mouth then my furries do and besides these are my babies and tough nougies to those of you that are grossed out. My dogs give me cheek kisses too – so there. Having said all this, I admit the idea of those toe nails swimming around in my coffee cup does leave me a bit grossed out. We all know there those paws have been!

So, to my fellow ferret owners, when clipping your ferret’s toe nails, make sure to cover your beverage container or you may just have a “little extra” that you hadn’t counted on!