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    A Treasure Chest of Ferret Musings
    A Treasure Chest of Ferret Musings
    A Treasure Chest of Ferret Musings
    Ebook41 pages29 minutes

    A Treasure Chest of Ferret Musings

    By Karen Hearing

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    About this ebook

    It's strange places your mind will take you – and often unbidden – when you start thinking about pet ferrets. But it's all good and all fun . . . most of the time. Anyhow, here's our fun and informative compendium of ferret musings. Inside, you'll find:

    Chapter 1: What is a Ferret?
    Chapter 2: Basic Ferret-Ownership Facts
    Chapter 3: Some Interesting and Odd Ferret Facts
    Chapter 4: Why a Ferret?
    Chapter 5: My Husband's Take on Pet Ferrets
    Chapter 6: A Straight-from-the-Ferret's-Mouth Ferret Manual
    Chapter 7: Ferret Name Games

    Excerpt:
    My Husband's Take on Pet Ferrets
    A ferret is small creature that possesses the attributes of several animals all rolled up together in one fuzzy package. Ferrets have the predicament-inducing curiosity of a cat, they display the self-abandoned playfulness of an otter, and they engage in the zany and often outrageous antics that dogs do. They simply can't be safely pigeonholed. And that's a little frustrating for guys because we like clear-cut categories. We just don't do well with ambiguity and fluidity.

    Someone once said (I think it was Chesterton) that husbands need their wives to talk to them . . . because it helps them concentrate on what they're reading. Yes, he was being facetious, but there's still a lot of truth in that. Husbands and wives, after the honeymoon years are past, just don't have a lot to say to each other. But a pet ferret can help with that.

    A ferret is a convenient, shared conversation piece. Everybody in the household loves a pet ferret. And that also means that everyone is usually ready and willing to talk about the cute critters. So when the kids are grown and gone and conversation flags, a ferret is something husbands and wives can talk to each other about again – with interest.

    My wife often comes running out of her room and exclaims: "Michael! You'll never believe what Loki and Luna just did!" To which I respond: "What?" She then proceeds to tell me, and then we talk about her ferrets for a while. Without the ferrets, I would still be reading – and we wouldn't be talking.

    Finally, and slightly related, a ferret is a marriage-saver. There is almost nothing that can lift you out of a depression or turn aside an angry mood like watching a pet ferret play. So when my wife is angry with me – gratuitously and for absolutely no justifiable reason – she will often go play with and talk to her ferrets. And then, when she comes out of her room again, she is in a good mood. Her anger has passed, and she doesn't wish I lived somewhere else. So, thanks to Rikki and Possum and Loki and Luna, my wife's ferrets, our marriage is still intact.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherKaren Hearing
    Release dateDec 27, 2013
    ISBN9781310854613
    A Treasure Chest of Ferret Musings
    Author

    Karen Hearing

    An animal lover since she was a young girl, Karen has three dogs,one cat, three horses, one husband . . . and four ferrets. It might be better, though, to say that these ferrets share her home. When you have a pet that combines a cat's curiosity and an otter's playfulness and a dog's silly antics, you can't really say you own it.Karen has been sharing her home with ferrets for about four years (as of this writing – September 2011). They are Rikki, a female albino ferret, and Possum, a male panda ferret, and Loki and Luna. Her adventure with pet ferrets began like this . . .Karen found Rikki, the fuzzball who started her love affair with ferrets, curled up on the ground beside her truck at work on a cold, rainy December night. Karen scooped her up, dried her off, and took her home. (She did do her best to locate the owners.) Thus began her life with ferrets.After having Rikki for about a year, Karen began to feel guilty about not being able to give her the attention she needed (because of work and family and all that). So, in early November, she put on her brightest, most-fetching smile and asked her husband for an early Christmas present. And he said, "We'll see" – which was close enough to "Yes" for Karen.So in a few days they set off to the local pet store to find Rikki a "baby brother." Karen took Rikki with her so she could help pick out her "brother," but Rikki, her furry little mind boogled by ferret speed dating, couldn't make a decision. Karen decided for her, and she made a good choice. Possum is a playmate, cohort in adventure and loving companion to Rikki and both a joy and a trial to Karen.Now, Karen shares her enthusiasm for fuzzy carpet sharks and growing knowledge of ferrets with anyone willing to listen. Ferrets are fairly high-maintenance pets. They require a lot of care, a lot of attention, in-depth knowledge of diet and health issues, and just the right ferret accessories and ferret toys.Karen’s goal is to help people who are in the same boat she was when ferrets first came into her life – that is, knowing almost nothing about ferrets or where to turn for help. She hopes to make the journey a little smoother for other ferret owners. For healthy, happy ferrets are worth it.

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      Book preview

      A Treasure Chest of Ferret Musings - Karen Hearing

      A Treasure Chest of Ferret Musings

      Karen Hearing

      Smashwords Edition

      Spring Lake Books

      Copyright 2013

      This little book is a compendium of fun and quirky (and sometimes loosely connected) musings on the topic of pet ferrets. Sometimes, your mind will travel, willy-nilly, down strange paths when ferrets are involved. Also included here is our little ferret's-eye booklet titled A Ferret Manual. So . . . enjoy!

      All rights reserved. This book may not be used or reproduced in any manner—by any means or in any medium whatsoever—in part or in whole without written permission of the author (except, of course, small excerpts in reviews). Please respect intellectual-property rights and help authors protect what they've created.

      Chapter 1: What is a Ferret?

      Chapter 2: Basic Ferret-Ownership Facts

      Chapter 3: Some Interesting and Odd Ferret Facts

      Chapter 4: Why a Ferret?

      Chapter 5: My Husband's Take on Pet Ferrets

      Chapter 6: A Straight-from-the-Ferret's-Mouth Ferret Manual

      Chapter 7: Ferret Name Games

      A Treasure Chest of Ferret Musings

      What is a Ferret?

      Ferrets, because they are meat eaters, belong to the Carnivora order, as do dogs and cats, wolves and lions. As we move further down the classification line, we see that ferrets belong to the Mustelidae (which means loosely weasel or mouse killer) family, and this makes them remotely related to badgers, sea otters, wolverines, and polecats. So far, then, it seems our pet ferrets, our favorite fuzzies, are in the company of some pretty tough (and perhaps stinky) critters.

      Next, we find ferrets in the genus putorious, a Latin word that means stench. (Just think of the word putrid.) Then, they are in the species called furo, which come from furis, which means thief. Big surprise, huh?

      So, taxonomically, a ferret is . . . a weaselly, mouse-killing, smelly thief. But pet ferrets aren't really very closely related to weasels, and most of them don't kill mice (unless they are fed a whole-prey diet). They are, however, incorrigible thieves, so that part's pretty accurate.

      This description, though scientifically sound, doesn't really tell us much about what this creature we love really is. So . . . just what IS a ferret?

      Well, first off, a ferret is a small, elongated, long-whiskered bundle of energy – when it isn't sleeping, which is most of the time. It is a creature that when active (which, again, is only

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