My Ferrets Adoption Story; Tell us yours !

[Johnny and Demon]

[glow=red,2,300]There is nothing wiser than these little creatures of God.
There is no love more sincere and pure on this earth.[/glow]
Please, let me tell you the stories of my babies; Johnny and Demon.

Demon .. the only demon that fell down from heaven. My boyfriend and I wanted a ferret. We did our homework and we were ready to this commitment that we still hoping will last more than 10 years .. When we came to that Pets Unlimited store (we were just moved in Moncton and had no idea of what were Pets Unlimited stores), only two kits were there; a white female and a panda little boy. We asked an employee to see their ferrets, he gave me Demon and gave the little girl to my boyfriend. I don't know why, I don't know how, but Demon took my hearth. My boyfriend told me that the little female was so cute and that we had to take her home. I said: wait. Look at this little fellow. Don't you find he's cute ? He told me: Yes, he's cute. But look at her. She's sure cute ! The choice was hard, it still breaks my heart how we had to choose between two angels, but I gave him Demon and said: " Take him. Look how peacefull he is". And from the moment my boyfriend took Demon, a peacefull and lovely smile came out. "We chose this one", we said to the employee. Of course, we thought about names for our future ferrets (I don't remember the names for a girl, I know I thought about "angel" and for a boy I thought about "Demon", "Keplunk" and "Mr Sweetheart" lol). Finally, my boyfriend was hating my choices but was agree that Demon would be a good name for this little fellow. Demon was the perfect ferret for a "first time". I've asked the employee if Demon was a male or female, just to make sure, just to give him a good name. He told me : "Take the one you want, anyways they are neutered". Okay .. I think it's a male, this belly looks like a penis. I'm not that dumb, I had pets before (I knew someone that had a ferret, I had rabbits, cats and dogs). Anyhow. Demon was easy to nip-trained, he learned tricks and his name really fast. He was perfect .. he is perfect. He's now 1 year old. He's cuddly, curious, smart, lovable .. We love him !

& One day, we went to Pets Unlimited to look at those poor animals out there. A little fellow took all our attention. He was jumping on the hammock, trying to get out of this hell. He has a Bandit (racoon) mask and little eyes of an angel; a totally innocent face. Once again, we fell in love. "We HAVE to take him away from here !" my boyfriend told me. "We already have Demon".. I replied. But my hesitation was too big, this little baby was too cute to deny the fact that he was in the need of a loving family. So you know what happened .. I told my boyfriend: "I chose Demon's name, so its your turn". He said Devil and I thought he was not original so then he said Johnny (he's my boyfriend nickname) and I smiled and said: Why not? Once again, we asked the employee if he was a male or a female. She told me that he was a female and she was really obstinated ! but the vet told me that we were right and both were males lol Woah ! Congrats Pets Unlimited ! Where's your education ? Anyhow .. We came home and Demon was already hissing at him. LOL Poor Johnny. We had to let Demon slept alone on his room for two weeks and we had to put Johnny in a cage in our room. Johnny was 3 months of age and a half. He was really scared and did not want to eat anything. I was affraid that he was sick or something. After all, he spent a month in a Pets Unlimited store .. He was not sleeping, he was very scared and he was biting us HARD. But after encouraging him to eat, he ate ! After a lot of patience and Time Out lol he stopped biting ! Johnny is now a perfect, mellow and lovable ferret.

They are our reasons why we can't live without ferrets anymore, and the reasons why we love to read alot about them. They make us smile even if we are tired or if we had a bad day. They are the reason why we find our life perfect. They are our childrens; we are their mommy and daddy. No matter how much time in takes in a day to take good care of them, no matter how much money we can spend on them for toys, foods, hammocks, ear cleaner, dental gel, vet fees and so .. They love us and make us happy No matter how often they can be "devilish", they are our evil little angels lol They are cute, they are cuddly, they are fun, they are friendly, they are lovely .. they are perfect ! They are a part of our hapiness, they are a piece of our heaven

Mommy and Daddy love you forever, Johnny and Demon ♥ !


Demon (2 months) with a Marshall's Chew Toy (Chicken one)

Demon in his little Living World's House

Johnny (3 months), the first night he slept !

Johnny in daddy's arms
~The babies (1 year old)~

[Tressie]

What a lovely story. Sounds like two very much loved little fuzzbutts found their perfect home

Tressie

[Johnny and Demon]

Thank you Tressie
We sure hope they know how much we care lol

[airy]

Awww..Annik, your story was beautiful. Even before I read this thread it has always been clear to see just how devoted and how much you love your Johnny and Demon, I don't think they could of ever found any parents better than you and your boyfriend. They are very lucky to have you both

This is my ferrets adoption stories..

Pandora: This story is a bit disturbing..

Well I had a pet mouse named jack who I loved very dearly, well he got out of his cage one day and my father was here, my father sees him and thinking it was a wild mouse that my cat brought in the house he killed him!! I seen what he did and started screaming "YOu just killed Jack!!!" My kids happened to walk in and seen it too and they started screaming and crying, my father felt so bad, he felt like a total piece of shit for what he done and told my kids that he would get them any animal they wanted, A week later he comes over and tells us to get in the truck because we are going for a drive, he takes us to Pets Unlimited and tells the kids to pick out any animal they wanted, I was against this because I did not want Jack replaced or the kids to learn that animals are replaceable. Anyways Ocean spots a beautiful albino ferret and tells my father she wanted it, he said yes and I tell him no because she was 275.00 and I did not want him spending that much but he insisted that he wanted to. I was already planning on getting a ferret at the time and did do hours upon hours of research and decided I wanted to wait a bit to set up first because i felt I wasn't completely ready with all the other animals I had. Anyways my father kept insisting so i agreed and deep down inside I really really wanted her. We also picked her up a ferret nation cage and a ton of accessories and supplies, that one trip to the pet shop cost nearly 1000.00, again this was because my father issisted, he spent a fortune just to make amends for killing a mouse that I paid 5.00 for but he was happy to be able to do it, and when Pandora was/is amazing, It was only a matter of minutes before I was completely attached to her when I got her home, and she made herself right at home, the second she got out of that box she started doing the weasel war dance at me and next thing I knew we were chasing each other back and fourth. She is the most playful one out of the three, that is for sure and she is such a clown, I just love her to death. I still miss my Jack but I don't know what I would do without my Pan Pan.

Loki:

Well after having Pandora for a few months I decided she needed a companion. She was and is so playful and I felt kind of bad because I would watch her ambush and jump at the cat and he would simply walk away from her, It made me feel so bad for her, I knew she needed a animal companion so she would have a friend to play with her on her own level, I searched pet ads high and low for a ferret and even put ads up looking for one but had no luck, so I decided to try the pet shop, I went to Village Pet Center and they had a beautiful sable mitt sound asleep in a cage, he was the most gorgeous little guy ever, I inquired about him and was told that he may not be right for me since I am still new to ferrets and that ferret is a bad biter, I agreed and left, but when I got home I couldn't stop stop thinking about that little cutie sound asleep all by his lonesome, I did some research on training ferrets how to not bite, I figured i could handle it and knew he would be worth it, so two weeks later I went back and said I was taking him, I asked to hold him and he was handed over to me, he was pretty good, then my 10 year old asked to hold him and he bit right on to her nose, hard and he wasn't letting go, I said maybe this is not a good idea but my daughter was "please mom, he is just scared, I know he will be my best friend" I asked her if she was sure and she was so I decided to go with it so I bought him. For the first couple of weeks he was biting and biting hard, Myself and my youngest daughter were never bit by my hubby and 10 year old were full of bite marks, they always had bite marks on their noses especially, but after a few techniques I tried on him to get him to stop biting, he stopped completely and is the most lovable little guy ever..although I will admit he sometimes will bite people who he is not familiar with. Also when I got him home, My husband was in the middle of giving Pan Pan a bath when I walked in with him, as soon as he brought her out of the bathroom she jumped out of his arms and ran right for Loki, she was all over him and ready for play(completely ignoring the fact that she was soaked), he was kind of shy with her at first and tried to ignore her attempts at play but within a few minutes later they were chasing each other all over the house and making those cute clucking sounds, it was like they were instant BFF

Eris:

It was supposed to be a quick trip to Pet Village Center to get a bag of ferret food, but I happened to notice they had baby ferrets in, I asked to hold them..I mean who wouldn't?? Anyways when they handed to me the brown sable mitt female, it was a instant bond, she was so different than any other ferret I had seen, she wanted to be held, never squirmed at all, she just kind of went limp in my arms, she eventually fell asleep as I was holding her, all her siblings there squirmed but not her, when my daughter held her she started giving her kisses, she was the sweetest little thing ever, I knew she was meant to be mine I decided that she was meant to come home with us. So that is how I got my Airy Eris and what a joy she is, She is still the same way, always wanting to be held, when I don't pick her up she will actually climb up my legs for me to hold her, she never squirms ever and will let anyone hold her as long as they want, she is my little gentle beauty, she hasn't never once bit anyone, even when she was a small kit(and I hear kits are quite the nippers), she just loves attention, Sometimes I will fall asleep if I am watching a movie, when I wake up she is either beside me or on me sound asleep herself, she just loves human attention, and when I brought her home both Pan Pan and Loki instantly loved her. They are all the best of friends, still to this day there has never been a fight or any aggression between my ferrets, they all love each other so much. I call them the Three amigos

[Johnny and Demon]

O.M.G. Airy ! Thank you for sharing that Your ferrets sound unique and lovable !! Its funny that your Eris love to be held, because Demon and Johnny love that too !! Johnny also climb my leg for attention and open his little arms just like he wanted to say: "I want cuddles mommy !!" lol I think ferrets love cuddles more than we can think lol Anyhow. Your ferrets are lucky to have you

[Tressie]

Airy - another wonderful story! Although I am sorry your beloved little Jack was accidentally murdered. Your poor Dad

I am very impressed that you took on a fear biter. That says to me that you are truly a ferret person at heart. These little guys can be rehabilitated but it takes endless patience and the heart for ferrets to be able to do it.

Is he by any chance deaf? They are the ones most likely to turn into fear biters because people aren't aware they are deaf and don't handle them appropriately creating fear biting.

I'll share my story of my little fear biter Donnola and how she came to be adopted by me.

I received a call from a young woman (16 years old) in PEI last summer about 2 ferrets she and her boyfriend had purchased from a pet store. The two were still kits and quite nippy, one was worse than the other. Her name was Tinkerbell. First question I asked was if she was deaf and was told definitely NOT! Over the next couple of months I spoke with both of them and gave them tons of suggestions on how to deal with them.

The boyfriend was hitting her on the nose whenever she nipped, which progressed to hitting her outright and then throwing her. He did not do anything I told him to while the girl tried. She spoke with me privately and told me they argued and fought a lot, sometimes he hit her. They also had an uncle living with them who was an alcoholic and would "whack" Tinkerbell whenever she came near him.

Horrible situation and I encouraged her to consider surrendering them to us, but she wanted to keep trying. One day I got a frantic call from her saying her boyfriend had had enough and was going to kill Tinkerbell. We quickly arranged a surrender and I was waiting to hear back from her when would be a good time. That was the last I heard from her. She didn't respond to any emails and didn't take my calls or return my messages. I feared the worst - that the boyfriend had killed Tinkerbell. The last frantic phone call came at the end of May 2008.

In November I received an email from a veterinary student at AVC who said she had adopted a ferret from the SPCA in PEI who was a vicious biter. She had been working with her for 4 months and was trying 'clicker' training and nothing was working. She loved the little ferret but nothing she did worked and she was regretfully going to have it euthanized when a fellow student told her about us.

We talked a great deal and I also asked her if the ferret could possibly be deaf? She was sure she wasn't deaf. When I got off the phone it struck me that this might be the same ferret the young couple had contacted me about earlier in the year.

I wrote back to the vet student and described the situation I had encountered earlier and was wondering whether her ferret might be the same one. I also gave her the name of the ferret - Tinkerbell.

She wrote back to me shocked "IT IS TINKERBELL!" Fortunately, the SPCA had kept her name. The young man hadn't killed her but she had been turned over to the animal shelter. The vet student however, decided she had run out of patience and energy to work with her anymore and wanted to surrender her.

We had a foster mom in PEI at that time and she took her then transported her to me. She was utterly beautiful - a blaze with large dark sad eyes. It took me about 2 seconds to realize she was utterly, totally DEAF. She bit me as soon as I picked her up. So I scruffed her! Well she went ballistic and repeatedly bit my hand so badly it ended up developing sepsis. She bit to the bone.

BUT while she was biting me I GENTLY put her into her cage and while I cleaned my bleeding hand tried to figure out how to handle this terrified ferret. I also called the vet student to see if she had trouble scruffing her. She hadn't even tried but said she had been microchipped by the SPCA without sedation. That is a HUGE needle and must have absolutely terrified her to have someone grab her and shove a spear in between her shoulders. No wonder she went ballistic when I scruffed her.

Anyway the strategy I decided to use was to be super gentle with her, slow movements, always make sure she saw me before I approached her. I also would not give her an opportunity to bite and if she did would not react - nothing! She couldn't be scruffed, she couldn't hear "NO" and therefore, I was hoping by not reacting to bites and treating her with kindness, the biting would extinguish. And it did.

The most rewarding moment was the first time she gave me kisses, which she does lots now. However, she is still nervous with strangers especially males. So I put her away to the safety of her cage when I have visitors.

I adopted her after I had her for 3 weeks thinking I couldn't trust that she would never bite another person who might adopt her. She is now integrated to my group and is the happiest little girl.

And I renamed her Donnola, which means 'weasel' in Italian.

Tressie




Donnola's first day!

[airy]

You know Tressie, I never even thought to consider the fact that he may be deaf, I just assumed that he wouldn't be because he is sable mitt and I thought that deafness was only common in certain colors like albino and panda. After reading your post I decided to try and find out if he is or not so I took my keys and stood about 5 feet away as he slept and shook them..he lifted his head and started looking around, I am assuming that that is a sign he is not deaf, and also whenever I turn the vacuum on he takes off like a bat out of hell, it scares him to death, what do you think?? Is that enough to determine if he can hear or not?

OMG!! He boyfriend sounds psychotic..I hope this was enough to for her to get rid of him..She should of surrendered him..If I were her, I would of surrendered him..not my ferrets. Thank god poor Tinkerbelle(Donnola) is out of there and into the loving good home that you are giving her. This is why I think certain people should not be allowed to have ferrets or any other animal at that.

With Loki, I agree with you, he has to be a fear biter because some things do set him off and cause him to bite, like if I happen to pet him or pick him up when I am wearing gloves, I think where he was a biter before I had him, people may have been handling him with gloves, perhaps he had a bad experience with someone in gloves and this is why he bites me if I am wearing gloves. I also suspect that that he may have had a home before the petshop and was returned by his previous owners, I suspect this because when I brought him home he seemed very familiar with the inner workings of the house..When I first got him I seen him standing up at the toilet like he wanted to see what was inside (I was like "wanna see what is in there buddy?" and just to satisfy his curiosity i sat him on the toilet seat so he can have a look, i had to pull him away right away because he went in there to have a drink..he did it in a way where it looked like it may of been a previous habit for him and another home..there were so many other little incidents that happened where I have wondered if he was in someones home before and if this is the case, I am betting that he was mistreated and as for him trying to drink out of the toilet I have wondered if that was his only means to get something to drink before...he seems very content with some people but other random peole he has bitten for no reason, the second time I went in(when I got him) another person working there did tell me that he often took Loki out to play and handled him a lot and was never once bitten..yet other people at that pet shop were bitten by him. It must be something about certain people that sets him off.

One other thing I noticed about Loki is that he has the wisest looking eyes ever, when I hold him in a way that he is faces me he gives me eye contact and it feels like he is looking right into my soul..sounds corny but its true. Also he smiles, sometimes when i am holding him and he is really happy I can see a smile on his face, he smile with his eyes and mouth..people would think I am crazy for saying he smiles but it really looks like he does..We had him outside the other night, he must of decided that he was tired of all that running around and climbed up my daughter's leg to be held, he just snuggled up in her arms, he looked so happy, and I could see his smile so I took a pic..here it is

[purpleferret]

aw that's sweet! Keep in mind those kodak moments...we need some for a calender.

[Johnny and Demon]

Thanks Tressie for sharing that story .. its fun to see Donnola happy and heathy in a new loving home She looks so cute ;D Oh and Airy, I love your picture, your ferret is so pretty ;D !

[jenclarke23]

Your stories are all so amazing. I'm sitting here on my lunch break with a smile on my face as I read this. I've posted most of my adoption stories elsewhere on the forum but I'll post here for the whole story.

#1. Rupert. My boyfriend and I had wanted a ferret and we did all the research we could. We didn't particularly want a petstore ferret just because there seemed to be a lot in the buy and sell before we were really ready to adopt one. Of course after making this decision there weren't any ferrets that I could find for months . We had finally arranged to go have a look at one little boy ferret that a family was giving up because he was supposed to be the childs pet but took too much looking after but that fell through. I was very dissappointed.

About 3 months after we seriously started looking I saw an ad on kijiji and called. We went over and there was beautiful Rupert. Very quiet and tame and not to be offensive to the owner but obviously not belonging there. The family had dogs, cats, snakes and bunnies and Rupert was being picked on by most of the other animals. He was also in the tiniest cage. It may have been marketed as a ferret cage but it was way too small. Especially since the little boy was in there most of the day to protect him from the other animals. We took him on the spot. When we got him home and let him into the room he was pretty cautious but after a few hours of playing and giving him a few treats he loosened up.

We noticed around 3 or 4 days after getting him that Rupert was deaf. We'd read about it but it was confirmed when we did a few tests. Poor guy can't hear a thing. He's not too disabled by it though except I think it made Rupert and Jacobs introduction a bit rough. Rupert would make such a racket any time Jacob even licked his neck that Jacob would scurry away and hide under the cage. This went on for two or three days. Rupert didn't seem stressed by it at all...in fact he kept running and play fighting but to poor Jacob, Rupert probably sounded like he was being murdered.


We've had Rupert for nearly a year and a half and he's doing great. He's the cuddler of the group. He is very active but not very agile. I'm not sure if that's due to being stuck in such a tiny cage when he was young but there is definitly a difference between Rupert and all our other ferrets. Rupert cannot jump onto some things that our other ferrets find easy and he's never once managed to climb to the top of the cage (maybe he just has a fear of heights! ;D). Rupert is also our largest ferret and (don't tell) probably my favorite.

#2. Jacob. After a couple of months we decided to try and look for another ferret as a friend for Rupert. We were looking to adopt again but as I stated previously we were in a Pets Unlimited store once for something completly unrealated and came across Jacob. He was too cute and all by himself in a dirty cage so we took him. When we introduced him to Rupert they fought a bit. We were careful to keep them in seperate cages and supervise time but I'll admit that for the first few days I was afraid we'd made a big mistake. Since gaining Ferret experience I understand now that they weren't really being very aggressive at all but at the time the noises were horrible. Anyway now they are best buddies and will not sleep without each other. Jacob is a maniac. He doesn't bite or eat anything other than ferret kibble. He can get into absolutly everything and his favorite thing in the world is to dig...in anything.

#3 and 4 Delilah and Cujo. These two girls were more adoptions. They are adorable. Cujo is shyer and likes to do things on her own. She's the most solitary and often I'll find her asleep curled up by herself. Deliliah is dominent. I couldn't believe when I got the two girls home that tiny Deliliah was bossing around my big tough boys. She put Rupert and Jacob in their place right away but since then they get along great. All four will often sleep together now. They're still in seperate cages for the night (mostly since we put the homemade cage togething in the room and now it's kind of stuck there until we dismantle it haha) but soon we're going to get them into the one big Ferret Nation cage.

Anway enough rambling. Sorry for the spelling mistakes above . Also I've put new pictures up on Multiply. I think I joined the group there but I'm not really sure. I'll go try and figure it out now.

Take care everyone!
Jen

[Johnny and Demon]

Awww !! I liked your stories Jen Your fuzzies are really lucky