New Ferret in the Family
Well, Angelica is now a big sister. I adopted a two and a half month old female ferret on Friday. She was at the store, but had been hopsitalized for two days after having a bad fall (she fell three feet) onto concrete, which happened on Wednesday of last week. She has some nerve damage, including the loss of feeling and control in most of her left side. Dr. Wolfe expects her to recover some, if not all, of the feeling/control of her left side over the next six weeks. We'll see what happens.
She's on anti-inflammatory drugs for the next two weeks (she landed on her head, and inflammation is the biggest threat after breaking their necks in that circumstance), and she finally started eating on her own last night. I've been working with her over the past few days, re-teaching her how to walk. She's still a little tottery, but she's making progress. Of course, as I've become "Mama Ferret," or so they were calling me at work, whenever she gets scared, she starts screaming until I pick her up. You can imagine how pleased I am with our "connection" when she starts screaming at 3am. Unlike my toddlers, she doesn't cry herself back to sleep in under three minutes. And for those of you who don't know what a ferret's scream sounds like, her scream is like a kitten's. In all fairness, she's a very effective alarm clock.
I haven't decided on a name for her yet. For the moment, she's simply "baby." She's incredibly small, fitting rather neatly in the palm of my hand. Angelica seems to be enjoying being a big sister. She's been herding "baby" around and cuddling up with her. Of course, I seperate them at night. I don't want my littlest one wandering around that cage at night, just because she isn't steady enough on her feet yet. She could easily fall, and despite the rather obsessive hammocking I've done to keep Angelica from hurting herself, I still don't feel good about the idea of letting the little one roam. Though, I might be a tad over-protective. Today, she climbed up some metal cages to get to me. I put her down to let her totter around a bit, and she took three steps away from me, cried, and immediately turned around and started climbing.
Yeah. So, I'm a mommy. Again.
She's on anti-inflammatory drugs for the next two weeks (she landed on her head, and inflammation is the biggest threat after breaking their necks in that circumstance), and she finally started eating on her own last night. I've been working with her over the past few days, re-teaching her how to walk. She's still a little tottery, but she's making progress. Of course, as I've become "Mama Ferret," or so they were calling me at work, whenever she gets scared, she starts screaming until I pick her up. You can imagine how pleased I am with our "connection" when she starts screaming at 3am. Unlike my toddlers, she doesn't cry herself back to sleep in under three minutes. And for those of you who don't know what a ferret's scream sounds like, her scream is like a kitten's. In all fairness, she's a very effective alarm clock.
I haven't decided on a name for her yet. For the moment, she's simply "baby." She's incredibly small, fitting rather neatly in the palm of my hand. Angelica seems to be enjoying being a big sister. She's been herding "baby" around and cuddling up with her. Of course, I seperate them at night. I don't want my littlest one wandering around that cage at night, just because she isn't steady enough on her feet yet. She could easily fall, and despite the rather obsessive hammocking I've done to keep Angelica from hurting herself, I still don't feel good about the idea of letting the little one roam. Though, I might be a tad over-protective. Today, she climbed up some metal cages to get to me. I put her down to let her totter around a bit, and she took three steps away from me, cried, and immediately turned around and started climbing.
Yeah. So, I'm a mommy. Again.