Happy Birthday Tabitha and Kai!! Three Years Old Today

July is a busy month for us - Winston turned 3 on the 3rd and Tabby and Kai turn 3 today.  I can't believe these two little stinkers are already three years old!

Kai is still my wild child - he likes to climb up your pantlegs, try to remove your toenails and he loves to play rough and tumble.  On the flip side he is incredibly affectionate and will give you lots of kisses right under your nose.

Tabitha - my independent girl.  She will let you pick her up and love on her but it is not her favorite thing for sure.  She is my helper - she loves to help with chores - standing in the litter boxes while I scoop, standing in the way while I vacuum and mop and following me close as I do my chores each morning and evening.

They have had some treats (ferret chew sticks and ferretone) for their birthday and some extra love and attention this morning.

I would be remiss if I didn't wish a heavenly happy birthday to Kai and Tabby's litter mate Harlow. We miss this little ginger girl so much and think of her every day.  I hope she is having a giant birthday blowout at the Rainbow Bridge.

1 Year

One year ago today we made the difficult decision to send our sweet baby ferret Harlow over the rainbow bridge.  At the one year mark the hurt is still present.  With Clooney - his life was long and full and I hated losing him but I was prepared somewhat for his passing.  Losing Finn broke my heart but then Bash cam into our lives and while he is not a replacement he has so many similar traits that I feel like I get to remember Finn through him somehow.  Harlow was so young and I was so bonded with her after providing round the clock care that losing her left a giant void that has yet to heal over. I think of her every day and miss her desperately.

I know in my heart that letting her go was the kindest thing we could have done for her - she was so sick at the end.  If there was anything I could have done to keep her with me I would have but unfortunately the disease (FIP) won out.  So - today - like every day I remember her with such love and a full heart.

I bet she is running a playing with her brothers and sisters at the rainbow bridge - visited often by my dad,....  I love you Harlow girl and I miss you more than you ever could imagine....

A picture from her first day with us

Her favorite place to be - with her siblings - she is top left

With her litter mates Kai and Tabitha

Happy Birthday Tabby and Kai!!

July is a busy birthday month - today Tabitha and Kai turn 2 years old!  Time goes so fast!  Tabby and Kai joined our crazy little zoo in November of 2014.  I would be remiss if I failed to mention my sweet Harlow - it would have been her birthday as well but sadly we lost her to a systemic disease called FIP last September.  We miss her very much but we are thankful that we see lots of her personality in her siblings each day.

The ferrets all got play time, Ferretone - their favorite supplement and a tiny bite of a yogurt covered pretzel - their absolute favorite people food treat....

Kai is still my wild and rambunctious child - full of piss and vinegar each and every day.  He is very affectionate and he loves to play.

Tabitha is my beautiful, petite girl.  She is very sweet but fiercely independent.

What's that you say?  It's my birthday - perhaps I should get up from my nap...

Nothing like a good birthday wrestle to start the day off:

The litter mates - Tabby on the left, Kai on the right

Wrestling with a little help from Bash

And a heavenly happy birthday to my darling Harlow - I hope she is having a big party with Nigel the hedgehog, her ferret brothers Clooney and Finn, her kitty sisters Zoey and Isabel and her Grandpa....

This was taken on her first birthday - which we were so lucky to celebrate with her.  No one thought she would make it to that date - we actually got an additional three months with this sweet girl.  Miss you my cutie!

Ferrets - Year in Review

So I saved the post about the ferret's year in review for last because it will be the hardest to write.  We can't look back on 2015 without remembering my sweet and adorable Harlow who was taken far too soon my an auto immune disorder.  She was diagnosed in May and I cherished every moment with her until the end of September when her condition worsened to the point we could not let her suffer. I miss that little ferret so much it hurts.  I think of her every day - often with tears.  She was such a trooper through her illness.  Rest in peace my sweet baby - know your mama loves you and misses you terribly.

Now - on to better parts of our year.  The ferrets had a good year this year!  With the exception of Harlow we had no illnesses to report.  Everyone seems to be happy and healthy.  The weasels seem to be quite happy in their new space.  They spend their days playing with each other and their toys, torturing the kitties, snoozing and eating.  Not a bad life!!

Madison is the eldest - she turned four this year!  She is my joyful and happy girl and she has done so well this year.  She has put on a bit of weight with the morning gravy - this is probably actually a good thing as she was just a tiny little one before.

Madison

Violet becomes more and more social as she ages.  She used to be quite the independent loner but since the summer she has decided that hanging out with the rest of the gang isn't so bad.  She is quite close to Madison and Fiona.  Violet will turn 3 in 2016.

Violet

Theo is my adorable and gentle boy.  He is rough and tumble when playing with the boys but watching him with Harlow over the summer was amazing.  He was her protector.  Theo is quite gregarious and animated and he makes me laugh every day.  Theo will also turn 3 in 2016.

Theo

Kai - my wild child.  He is full on all the time - that is - unless he is giving you a face full of kisses. This little boy is full of antics all the time.  He loves to wrestle and play and is always trying to make friends with the kitties with limited success.  Kai and Tabitha are litter mates and were siblings with Harlow.  I am so glad I have them - they are a happy link to her.  Kai and Tabby both will turn 2 in 2016.

Kai

Tabitha is my independent little girl.  She tolerates being picked up and sometimes will visit your lap but otherwise is she very much like Violet used to be.  She is Miss Independent.  She does love to hang out with the boys though.  She and Kai are siblings and are very close.  She is also great friends with Bash and Theo.  She and Violet are just about carbon copies these days - its tough to tell them apart at times.  She is quite a beautiful ferret with her fluffy white coat.

Tabitha

Sebastian - aka Bash is my shy, sweet, mellow ferret - he still reminds me so much of Finn - it makes my heart happy to have him around.  Bash is adorable - a very cute and funny boy who enjoys playing with cat toys and hoarding them into a pile in my office.  He loves to be held and he seems to enjoy the 452 kisses I give him every day.  He is litter mates with Fiona and the two of them will have their first birthdays in 2016.

Bash

Last but most certainly not least - my beautiful Fiona.  She is honestly the most chilled out ferret I have ever met.  She loves to be held and carried around and is content to lay with you and get pets. She has adorable markings - four white feet and a white bib on her chest.  She face is darling.  Fiona is playful - she too loves toys and can often be found stealing from her brother's pile to add to her own.

Fiona

In 2016 I plan to spend as much time with these fur babies as possible.  I do adore them!  Let's hope for continued good health for my little brood.  I hope you will continue to follow our antics!

A Tough Week

I have to say - this has been a pretty rough week for our little zoo.

As you know - on Monday we had to say goodbye to our sweet Harlow girl.  Our hearts are still broken and we miss her immensely.  I just got a call from the vet and her remains are back so I will be making that difficult trek to pick her up and bring her home.

On Tuesday I was moving some things around in my office and managed to step on Violet.  Stepping on a ferret can be very dangerous and even life threatening.  So - to give myself peace of mind - I scooped her up and took her to the emergency vet to get checked out.  She was fine thankfully and after 24 hours separated from her siblings for observation she is back with the gang and doing fantastic.

Yesterday evening Winston came inside from his evening playtime/potty trip with an eye that was swollen shut.  Sigh.  I don't know if he got something in it, got an insect bite...geez.  I have to say - he is a pretty tolerant pig as I got him to lay down and he let me put some eye drops in there to see if I could flush it out if it was a foreign body.  I did a cold compress and used a cotton swab to make sure the eye was all clean.  Then I gave him a Benedryl and put him to bed.  He is looking better this morning - his eye is still a tiny bit swollen but he is opening it fully and there doesn't seem to be any issues with his vision.  I will be keeping a close eye on it but I think we are on the mend.

On a positive note - Emma finished up her round of antibiotics today.  Her mouth seems much better and next week we do her liver test and hopefully her dental work....

So - needless to say - I am ready for a better critter week next week....

Harlow - July 2014 - September 2015

Yesterday afternoon we made the agonizingly difficult decision to spare our sweet Harlow any further suffering and send her to the rainbow bridge.  The last week had been very difficult for her and there was no prospect for improvement.  Her sweet spirit has been freed from a body that failed her.  For that I am grateful.

Harlow was born on July 8, 2014 and was littermates with Tabitha and Kai.  The three of them came to live with us in November of 2014 and they quickly became a part of our family and captured our hearts. Harlow was a very shy and sweet ferret with a very easy going disposition.  She loved to play with toys and had several toy pile stashes in various places.  In May we got the devastating diagnosis of Ferret FIP (Systemic Coronavirus).

We were fortunate in that with the exception of the last week or so, the last 5ish months had been pretty good for our sweet girl.  She had a period of amazingly good health and even during her slow decline she was active, inquisitive and feeling quite good.  I am so thankful that she got to experience the new house and that we made the decision to put her back with her brothers and sisters.  She spent the last 8 weeks playing and snoozing with her ferret family and she so enjoyed that.

Harlow had an amazing and joyful spirit and even though she was sick she enjoyed her days - a lesson we can all learn from.  While we are heartbroken losing her I am so glad she doesn't have to struggle any longer.  The void left in our days is vast - my interactions with her were frequent - feeding her every few hours, endless hours of cuddle time and play time and ensuring she got her meds two times a day.  I even got up in the middle of the night last night to feed her out of habit.

I take comfort that she is with Clooney, Finn, Nigel and Isabel at the rainbow bridge free of any illness or ailments.  If love could have saved her she would have lived with us forever.... Rest in peace my sweet baby girl.

Birthday Snaps

So - I am a bad ferret mommy because I did a terrible job of document ferret bdays today.  I think they had fun but I didn't do so well at capturing it on camera.

This morning seven babies in the bathroom for gravy.  They also got ferret vitamins and ferretone. Then mid morning Kai was up and about with Maddie, Theo, Bash and Fiona - all of them got to share a birthday treat - a small piece of yogurt covered pretzel.  Everyone seemed to enjoy that.

Meanwhile, downstairs Harlow had lots of out of the cage time - she is doing so well!  There were multiple days not too long ago where it didn't look like she would make it to her first birthday and now look at her - back to a healthy weight and full of energy.  She helped me with a couple of projects today, ate well, did a good job taking her meds and played lots with Ollie and Emma.

This evening Tabby was up so she got her birthday treat - as did Violet.  Everyone also enjoyed evening gravy which is a rare treat.

Here are the few snaps I did manage to take over the course of the day:

Kai giving me nose kisses

Handsome birthday boy Kai

Cutie tootie Harlow

Harlow

My Harlow helper - crawling in a box of supplies

My beauty Tabitha

Tabby

Sweet birthday girl Tabitha

FAQs - Ferret Questions

I get lots of private messages with questions about the critters.  I thought I would do a series of posts in case other inquiring minds might want to know.

First - questions about the ferrets:

Q:  How many ferrets do you have?
A:  Currently we have 8 - 3 boys and 5 girls.

Q:  How long do ferrets live?
A:  Average is about 7 years.  They are considered seniors at 5.

Q:  Do ferrets bite?
A:  Yes - but not like you might think.  Ferrets nip by nature - its how they play with each other.  The bite when playing but not to be mean or malicious.  They are quite smart and can be trained not to bite.

Q:  Which is better - boy or girl ferrets?
A:  This is a tough one.  Boys are more rambunctious when they are younger but more affectionate when they get older.  Girls are generally more gentle and mellow.  There are fantastic aspects to both genders - in my opinion you can't go wrong with a ferret period.

Q:  Who is your favorite?
A:  Geez - I love them all to pieces and I love them all equally.  I really don't have a favorite.

Q:  What do you call a bunch of ferrets?
A:  A Business.

Q:  How can you tell when one of them is sick?
A:  This might be TMI - but - the way to tell is poop.  Their outputs are the best way to gauge how they are doing.  I have become quite the poo expert sadly.

Q:  How did they get their names?
A:  They get their names quite randomly - we have them for a few hours/days and try to pick something that matches their personality.  We often go through several tries before we land on their name. Sometimes we don't agree and have to compromise.  For instance - I really wanted to name Theo Thatcher but hubs said no way so we settled on Theo.  Turns out - I love his name now.

Q:  Do you keep them in a cage?
A:  No - they have free run of most of the upstairs.  Harlow is still separated from the rest of the bunch because we are still not 100% certain she is not contagious.  They are kept upstairs though - away from the pokey hooves of the piggy.

Harlow's Adventures

Yesterday we went to the hubs parents for dinner.  They live about forty five minutes away and if you budget in visiting and eating there was no way that I could leave Harlow for that long so we took her with us.  She stayed in her playpen on the screened in porch and I think she really enjoyed the change of scenery and the fresh air.  I fed her a couple of times while we were there and gave her the medication she needed right on time.  It made the evening much more enjoyable not having to worry about being gone for too long.

Since she enjoyed it so much last night I decided to give her some time outside this evening as well. She is currently out on the deck in her pen curled up in her blanket watching the birds and the trees.  She seems quite content.  Winston is out there with her pushing his treat ball around and around.  I just gave her a feeding which went really well - I was able to get in 24 ccs with no fussing, teeth grinding.....I love it when that happens....

Over all - she is holding her own... I am still working through the anger of this situation and the helpless feeling of not being able to do a thing for her but keep her comfortable.  I do adore her - and all of my furry babies....  deep breaths.  :)

Trial and Error

When you have a sick critter you have to think out of the box.  Much like people each little furry has their own preferences.  For instance - when I was hand feeding Clooney (our first ferret who we lost last July) he loved to be held like a baby and he would eat out of the syringe almost like a baby bottle.

Harlow doesn't want to be held at all - she just wants to eat out of the syringe.  Even that is changing over the last few feedings and she is not loving the syringe.  She is grinding her teeth even with the anti nausea medication.  This morning after her 8:30 feeding I was feeling pretty bleak about her future.  If I can't get her to eat then things don't look good for her.  So - we went on our walk and when we got home it was time for another meal for her.  I have noticed that she is quite meticulous about food it lands on her or on me so I had the idea of squirting some of the food in the palm of my hand.  She immediately went after cleaning it up and before she knew it she had consumed the quantity she needed for that meal!  Hooray!!  She was happy about it because she controlled the intake of how fast and how much and there was zero teeth grinding!  Yippee.  So I am feeling much better about things.  If we can keep her eating and her weight up she should be okay for the foreseeable future.  After her meal she jumped off the couch and was running around like a crazy ferret - playing in her tunnels and dragging a dog toy around.

We will keep trying new things til we can't think them up any more....  love that little fuzz butt.....

Stories of the Day

It's 7 pm and the majority of my critter duties are over.  Still left on the list - kitty ears, nighty cookies for the pig, dinner for Emma and an 8pm and 11 pm feeding for Harlow.  Today was a pretty good day - here is the recap:

Harlow - 6 am feeding went okay - she was hungry so she overlooked the nausea and ate pretty well.  * am feeding was rough and we got the Prednisone  in - I think overall that makes her feel better but it didn't help with the upset tummy.  Noon feeding - impossible - I got about half done and decided to wait til we had the anti nausea meds.  Ventured to the vet in a torrential downpour - that was exciting.  Meds picked up and headed home.  They worked almost instantaneously.  She at the rest of her noon feeding no problem.  3 pm was easy and 6 pm was as well.  She is a meticulous little ferret and she has to stop to get any drops of food that fall on her or on me during her feedings.  Then she spends like 20 minutes after she is done preening.  I am glad she feels well enough to care.

Kitties - no stories to share really - just a regular day of lounging, bathing, sleeping, eating....it is the life of a Grant cat.  I often hear that if my friends were to be reincarnated they would want to come back as one of our pets - they are just a tiny bit spoiled.

Emma was pretty good today - no walk this morning for her because it was raining.  She was a bit nervous throughout the day but this afternoon it has cleared up and she just came in from going potty, had some cookies and is snoozing away.




Mr Piglet is good - he has been such a well behaved pig the last week or so - that is until this morning - when he made two new holes in the carpet...strategic placement of floor rugs is getting more and more tough.  He was quite good throughout the day and right now he is playing on the deck - happy as a clam (are clams really happy?  who decided that they were?) with his treat ball.




The rest of the ferrets are doing just great.  The boys - Theo, Kai and Bash are all so handsome - I am so lucky....they are fine, full of piss and vinegar and in to everything.  The beautiful girls - Madison, Violet, Tabitha and Fiona are all fantastic as well.  I have seen everyone multiple times today and I will be heading upstairs to hit the showers after Harlow's 8 pm feeding so I  can make sure I don't spread any germs....  Happy they all seem to be doing so well....

The best part of today - I have a couple of things to wrap up for work and then I am off until next Wednesday - so glad - I need some downtime.....  Happy Thursday!

Random Snaps

Here are several random pictures from the last few days:

Winston

Aggie

Aggie

Winston playing with his ball on the deck

Sleepy Winston

Mr. Ollie Kitty

The beautiful Miss Fiona

Bash and Fiona

 The next four were taken today - my sweet Harlow - she is doing well!!

Violet

Kai