Post by rene on Mar 30, 2009 12:36:31 GMT -5
I am learning more and more as time goes on how to live with a my ferret and make both of our lives better for it. My latest lesson is understanding that just like a young child, he will test me to see if I really am in control. My other animals really didn’t do that. I still don’t like it when he is running around and I reach out to pick him up when he reaches back to snap at me. I am getting better at learning how to grab his scruff before he can bite me, and then holding him until he settles down and letting him go again. I am also doing something that I did with the ground squirrels that I still do, but forgot the original intent. When I walk past the cages, when he is awake, even if I am in a hurry and only have a couple of minutes to spare, I take him out to cuddle him, just for a minute. I had been in school F/T and working F/T for the last 18 months and sometimes the only time I had with the little furries were those moments. It was as much for me as for them. A few moments of calm, where everything else stopped, however briefly. I tended not to do that with a creature that was trying to bite me. He just wasn’t a cuddly creature, and that made me sad. He is getting better, and the times that he is out of his cage are much more pleasant for both of us. Last night he put his head in one of my husband’s slippers and was pushing it around the floor. Then he went to one of the throw rugs and attacked the corner of it, biting the corner of it and shaking it. He gets to stay out much longer now, and I feel much less guilt about the time he has to spend in his cage. It felt crummy to let him out of his cage to run, and then to put him back fairly quickly after a less than wonderful experience. I felt like he deserved much better than that.
Thank you so much for the update, will all care for you and Charcoal. Sending love to your precious baby 
