Ferret stories!

Cocoa's nail troubles
So, do ya'll remember a while ago I said that I was a horrible ferret mommy? Just a refresher, Cocoa got her nails stuck into her hammock and was stuck there for who knows how long before we realized she was firmly attached? She'd ended up pooping right in her hammock and was laying in it. We cut her out of the hammock and since then we haven't let her nails get that long again. (And I did throw away that hammock, in case anyone wondered.)

We'll apparently she learned from that experience...

Hal was looking at Cocoa the other day, and noticed that it looked like one of her claws was missing! (Ferrets have claws more like dogs than cats. Their nails aren't retractable and are always out there to get caught on stuff.) There is absolutely no nail in one of her little toes! And the hole where it should be looked like it had dried blood on it! I could have just cried! I was like when did that happen? Do you think it hurt? Did it bleed? How hard does a ferret have to struggle and pull to get a nail to come right out of the socket?

So I looked through her t-shirt bedding until I found a little (it really was little, so I don't think she bled much) brown spot. And firmly attached to the cloth was a ferret nail. Including the base of it! (With hairs, it's called a follicle, what's it called with nails?)

My poor baby got stuck... again! And instead of staying stuck and waiting for me to rescue her, she freed herself. By pulling on her foot until the nail came right out! Ouchy! I feel so incredibly awful!!! I'm feeling a little unfit for pet ownership! How can I let her get hurt like that? How does that happen?! I feel like I'm such a neglectful awful ferret owner! I leave her in her cage for hours while I'm at work and hours while I sleep. She only gets out for a little while a day, and to top it all off, she gets hurt while she's stuck in her cage!


And then, just to make myself feel slightly less awful, I'll think about how I was holding her and snuggling her just a couple of hours ago. And she bit my chin. That little snot!


Rubber chicken! Boo-yah!
On another, still ferrety, note. We were at Dollar General the other day, and they had this squawky rubber chicken. You squeeze the belly and the squeak comes out of the mouth a few inches away. Genius!

Rocket goes, well, a little nuts at a squeaky toy. We like to squeak it high enough off the floor that he can't get it and he jumps and jumps and jumps for it. It's too funny! And then we let him get it. And he runs off to his cage with it, where he proceeds to kill it. He shows that squeaker just who is in charge of this whole operation! He'll squeeze the squeaker until he gets sick of it. And then shake it a bit, just to make sure it's dead. And sets it down very gently in a corner. And runs away. At which point we reach in and take the toy back and squeak it again. Oh, the joys of squeaky toys...

Anyways, we HAD to get the rubber chicken. We can squeeze the squeaker and Rocket won't bite us in his frenzy to get it. (It must die, you know.) It totally rocks! The most awesomest part is that it's just the right pitch that it drives not only Rocket crazy but Garret and Cocoa, too. It's totally hilarious! One of these days maybe we can get a video. (If the stupid camera will work right! It keeps glitching and corrupting the videos we take. Grrr!!!! Not funny!)


Anyways, my ferret world is as entertaining as ever!

And Cindy, I too have heard of people walking their ferrets, but I can't figure out how they'd get their ferrets to actually walk somewhere! We've tried to take our ferrets for a walk on a leash. (Yes, we have leashes for our ferrets.) They don't... how shall we say it... walk correctly? It seems to be more about the journey than the destination, if you even reach the destination! They get distracted very easily, and don't ever go where you want them to go! Mine just go in circles & go here & then there & then run around my feet & tangle up the leash, etc.