Marcuz’s Grand Adventure: AKA Heart Stopping Fear

Yesterday was a day of highs and lows and one very prolonged heart attack. I cannot stress the need for ferret proofing and being observant of your environment. Yesterday was Monday and I had to get up early to go to job training down in Butler, Pa.

That meant I had to get up at 6am to get everyone feed, watered, and rotated. Now the room where Boyd the cat normally resides is being remodeled along with the roof being done on that side so he and I are residing in the ferret’s room.

During the day, the ferrets are out of their cage and at night, Boyd gets out of his crate to roam the hallway and the room. Boyd has a bad habit. He scratches at the window screen and nothing has stopped him from doing it. What I didn’t realize was that he had actually put a hole in the screen, which wouldn’t had been a problem if I had seen it before I left for my training that lasted from 8am to 5pm

I get home around 5:30pm and go upstairs to get out of my jeans and take my knee brace off entering the room I noticed that several things are out of place on the windowsill and then I see the six-inch long hole. Panic sets in and I start looking for my fur kids. Sleeping in a bin is Manny and Marylin.

As you can see from the pictures, I tore the room apart looking for Marcuz.

Looking out the window cold fear starts to develop as I realize that Marcuz had to have gone through the hole and out onto the roof. Racing down the stairs, I grab Manny’s harness and a leash speeding through the living room roomie asks what is wrong but the lump in my throat won’t let me speak so I just wave her off.

Stopping on the porch, I peer around the corner afraid to find a tiny broken body. There is none so the cold fear starts to receded and the panic starts to take over again. I can’t call for Marcuz as he is deaf and wouldn’t hear me. After checking around the outside of the house I go back in and get my voice to work long enough to tell Roomie that Marcuz has to be outside somewhere.

To which she tells me that Mr.. Z had been going ballistic earlier in the day and she thought someone had been knocking at the door but when she checked there was no one there but Mr.. Z laid on the floor and stared outside. Roomie thought it might have been the stray cat that comes around or the dog from across the street.

Back upstairs to make sure I hadn’t over looked one of Marcuz’s hidey-holes. I hadn’t so back down the stairs and Mr.. Z and roomie are outside checking out things. Mr.. Z seems to be on the trail of something but what it was unknown and didn’t seem to be Marcuz. Thankfully, our neighbors are good and they put their own dogs inside or in the dog’s kennel.

This weekend was the community day yard sale and I hadn’t gotten all the boxes back inside so before getting off the porch for the third or fourth time I shook each box in hopes of noticing a weight difference or having Marcuz pop out of one.

Around the block, checking the tree Marcuz loves to dig at when we go for cool evening walks to the back yard where the Ferret Chariot is parked. Roomie says to check under the garage. It is kind of dark under there so I start to go inside to get the flashlight when I hear something on the porch. I stop and look to where the sound is coming from and from behind the board leaning against the wide railing comes this grayish pink nose.

Marcuz’ white first is dusky grey and he smells of dirt but he is perfectly fine. Did he drop from the roof to the ground? Or did he get down to the gutter and follow it around to where the plastic was stapled to the roof and used it as a rope to get down? Or did he somehow figure out how to go down the ladder? I have no answers but there is not a mark on Marcuz.

I am sure that my neighbors finally have proof that I am the crazy ferret lady after this adventure. Taking Marcuz back up to the room I secured the window and took his access to it away before letting him loose and what does the little booger do? He starts weasel war dancing around the room with this look of pure delight.

My nerves are still shot and my chest hurts from where my heart was pounding on it but thankfully, Marcuz has been found uninjured and unfazed.

Moral of the story: ALWAYS CHECK! Ferret proofing isn’t a onetime thing and needs to be constantly updated.

Have a Safe and Chittering Good Day,

Jo

Pet Finder’s Less Adoptable Week: Fred and Stewart

Would you like to see more pod casts or written posts? Have a Chittering Good Day, Jo

Featured Ferret: Poe

               A Dream

A wilder’d being from my birth

    My spirit spurn’d control

But now, abroad on the wide earth,

    Where wand’ rest thou my soul?

In visions of the dark night

    I have dreamed of joy departed --

But a waking dream of life and light

    Hath left me broken-hearted.

And what is not a dream by day

    To him whose eyes are cast

On things around him a ray

    Turned back upon the past?

The holy dream – that holy dream

    While all the world were chiding,

Hath cheered me as a lovely beam

    A lonely spirit guiding.

What though that light, thro’ misty night,

    So dimly shone afar --

What could there be more purely bright

    In Truth’s day-star? (1)

 

Hi, I am Poe. As in Edgar Allan Poe.  I am resting up at the Ferret Waystation here in Austin Texas before wandering in to the right hooman’s heart and home.

I am a wee lad looking for a happy place to bounce, scurry, and dance at along with maybe nicking an item or two for my own special hidey hole.

Any hooman out there that has an affinity for Poe? Or perhaps is just a writer looking for a muse? I can be that too. Richard Bach, he’s a writer you know, has ferrets that are his muses so I know I can be one too.

Or I can just be me and take away the gloom of the day by making you laugh and getting you to chase me. We can have lots of fun together.

Sides they won’t let me out of the Ferret Waystation unless I am with a hooman something about me being to little to be on my own.

My markings make me a Blaze ferret and there could be a 75% chance that I might be deaf. 

Hope my hooman is reading this right now.

Edgar Allen Poe Ferret

Disclaimer: I get no compensation for featuring ferrets from the Pet Finder site or from the shelters that they are residing at. The bios for each ferret are my own created from the information available and are works of fiction unless otherwise noted. 

Have a Chittering Good Day,

Jo

1. Poe, Edgar Allan “A Dream” The Unabridged Edgar Allan Poe 1983 Running Press

Marcuz

 

     Hi evfurybody Iz took over diz bloggy today. Fur doz dat don’t know me Iz ManChester better known az Manny. Hooman sayz Iz a sable wif a love of miciez. I have a big brofur named James he went on a big trip wifout mez. He told mez dat I had to stay here wif hooman and our new brofur Marcuz.

     Marcuz came to livez wif uz before Thankgiving hooman sayz hiz color iz Splatter cuz it look like paint got dropped and hez waz in da way. Hooman said dat Marcuz iz stone cold deaf. Hooman wrong hiz not stone or cold. Iz wazn’t sure what deaf waz. Hooman told mez dat Marcuz can’t hear anything.

     Hooman been using her hands a lot more she told mez datz she iz doing sign language. I members her doing dat before wif my other brofur, Lance, before he take big trip to place called da Rainbow Bridge datz where James went too.

     Hooman try to get lotz of picciz of Marcuz and mez but wez like playing hide n sneak. *chitters*. Only time Marcuz not moving much iz when hez sleeping .

      Hooman tried to put Christmaz clothez on uz but wez moved too much fur da piccis. Iz also try to hide da hat cuz it looked like a big mousie.

     Marcuz and I like each other which iz good cuz wez share da same cage when wez not playing who da bozz in da big room. Hooman got a blinky light it waz to get Marcuz’ attention but he ignore it. Mez try to take it all da timez to hide. Iz hopz youz like da picciz Hooman took.

 

Hooman sayz have a Chittering good day,

Manny 

P.S. Be sure to enter into our give away. Iz really lovez dat duck! *chitters*

Be the Change: Helping Those Less Fortunate

     If you have not figured it out yet I am not only a ferret owner but a ferret lover as well. I believe that we are put here for a reason. Sometimes it takes awhile for us to realize just what that reason might be.

     I now know that my reason is to help these little fuzzy clowns but correcting misconceptions and raising awareness of the many in need. Thanks to my followers both here on Enlightened Ferret and on Twitter I helped the senior ferrets at Heart of Ohio Ferret Association and last year I wrote about the Ferret Giving Tree.

     This site allows ferret shelters to post ten pictures of ten ferrets in need while giving the shelter a chance to ask for help in supporting his/her shelter. Mostly they ask for toys, cleaning supplies, and other small items.

     The pictures range from healthy ferrets to those who are sickly or have been abused. Adrenal disease is horrible to watch as it slowly robs a ferret of his/her health. The ones who have Adrenal looks like they have been abused because they are bald and have lost a lot of weight leaving their bones showing through their skin.

     Selection to be a Santa for one or more of these fuzz butts does not begin until November 1^st but I am posting a picture of Gibbs a three year old deaf boy who I am going to be Santa for and hope that the readers of Enlightened Ferret will help both Gibbs and his shelter out and any packages you send please add in care of Enlightened Ferret.com.

     I would love to help everyone of these little guys on the Ferret Giving Tree but by helping one I know I am giving back to them the love and inspiration my own have given me through the years.

                                              

Jo

Lance

      If you have been following this blog, you know a lot about Sir Lancelot. That he is a spoiled ferret, not that the others aren’t spoiled. Just that he is spoiled more so. He has a handicap of being deaf, not that has stopped him from being a clown. You know of his passion for socks and that he is the fat boy this winter.

      Lance is a blaze marked ferret. His second winter he shed his beautiful black markings and they haven't grown back. If you look closely, you can see the stripe on his head that is if he lets you look that long. The marking is 75% indicative that a ferret will be deaf because of Waardenburg’s

     Lance like his siblings came to live with me when he was just a kit of approximately 8 weeks of age. From the start, I could tell something was different about him but couldn’t put my finger on it. He was as inquisitive as the others and had the ignore the human down pat. He followed his siblings around like the tag along younger child.

     A couple of incidences made me suspect that he was deaf. One was when he bit me on the flesh between the forefinger and thumb almost piercing the area. With the others, my scream made them let go instantly, not with him. Judy had to pry his jaws apart while I scruffed him.

     Scruffing usually makes a ferret yawn and they will release their hold on things. The other was when he didn’t react to the vacuum cleaner.

     Those two things made me wonder if it was possible for a ferret to be hear of hearing or completely deaf. I started doing research online and found the most in depth site by a woman calling herself Wolfy.

     On her site were some tests to do that should receive a reaction from a hearing ferret. I did almost every single one and Lance didn’t react to any of them.

     He is considered a special needs fur child to the vet and many others. He acts no different from any other ferret I have met. He plays as long and as hard as the others do if not longer. He has his own quirks that make me laugh out loud. The only visible sign that there is something wrong is me signing to him.

     Lance is also the champion of Dead Ferret Sleep. No one is really sure why a ferret will fall into such a deep sleep that they look a dead ferret. I can only say that my youngest brother, Carl, is capable of this kind of sleep and he is also deaf. It makes your hear race when you can’t wake them up and their bodies are so relaxed that they flop around. About the only thing that will wake Lance up is putting a piece of his favorite treat on top of his nose.

     Even then it is a slow process and most times Lance stretches and looks at you to say “What? I was sleeping why’d you wake me up.” If you put him back in his hammock he will go right back to sleep otherwise he is up and ready to go play defend the box.

 

Jo

Teaching Lance Signs

Lance may have a hearing problem but he makes up for it with his keen eyesight. He seems to know that some thing is from far away unlike his brother and sister who have to be right on top of it. Lance also understands sign language. His vocabulary is about fifteen words. Training him to understand what each word was took some time and a lot of trial and errors on both of our parts.
When I finally realized that Lance was deaf I wasn’t concerned about the problem because I grew up with a deaf brother. I already had the language skills to deal with Lance. Problem was Lance didn’t have any language skills at the time. He didn’t even make the chitter chatter that my other fur kids did.
First on the agenda was to decide what signs I wanted to teach him and how to go about it. I thought about what the first word is we say to our children more than a few times in a day when they start exploring their environment.
Yep the first word he learned was NO! Which at the time was because he would bite and not let go. No is also an easy sign to do. It is like making a wide bird bill and closing and opening it a couple of times.
© Dr. William Vicars
While doing the sign is easy getting Lance to understand it took some time because I didn’t want to reward him for negative behavior. It took some thought and a lot of bitter apple.
Bitter apple is a taste deterrent that discourages negative behavior. It works as long as the ferret doesn’t like bitter tasting things like James. At the time Lance’s biggest problem was biting and to get him use to the sign No and associate it with something yucky tasting was easy.
I’d coat my hands with the bitter apple before I’d handle Lance. He’d grab my hand with his paws so he could get a good grip with his teeth. I’d sign No before he would chomp down on my hand. The taste of the bitter apple made him let go quickly. It only took six times of him repeatedly chomping on my hand. Lance now understands when I sign No he is doing something he isn’t suppose to be doing and like all little kids he hates the word so he usually doesn’t do the behavior to get told no.
The second sign I taught Lance was Play also an easy sign to do. Use both hands and make two Y’s turned sideways that you shake up and down.

© Dr. William Vicars
This was easier to teach Lance because I could use a treat or the fact I let him out of the cage after I signed it. Lance loves his playtime and will greet me at the door of his cage still. I think he also likes the fact I’ll tell him playtime when the other two are asleep. Lance is a lot like my little brother in that he has a lot more energy than the other two and doesn’t sleep as much as they do.
What I have found is that I do the same things I do when I am talking to my little brother, JR, I talk and sign at the same time. So all three of my fuzzies know what I am saying even when I don’t speak.
A really good site that I have found for learning more about American Sign Language is
http://www.lifeprint.com/dictionary.htm
I just recently found the site and it has helped me remember several signs that I had forgotten and helped correct me on the ones I have been doing wrong.
Lance’s list of signs are:
1. No, which is also used with bite.
2. Play
3. Come
4. Eat
5. Water
6. Little time
7. Later
8. Wait
9. Stop
10. What
11. Funny
12. Kiss
13. Love
14. Where
15. Sleep/nap
And the list is stilling growing. While Lance isn’t a chimp it does go to show that any animal given the time and motivation can learn the basic signs so that it is easier to communicate with them.
Last year showed just how well Lance knew his signs. He had to go to the vet for an injury that was painful for him. Normally he would have bitten the vet or the vet tech but I told him no bite and he didn’t bite either one of them. Both were impressed.
Jo