When we brought Vinnie home we didn't even have a cage. We got one from a cousin of mine within the week, and Vinnie had his own home. Vinnie inspired ferret envy in many of our friends. Contrary to the horror stories that so many people have of previous ferret encounters, Vinnie didn't stink, didn't bite, didn't spray noxious fumes a la Pepe le Pew. He was bred by Marshall Ferret, a company specializing in pets, and he came neutered and de-scented. He had the ear tattoos to prove it! (I can't seem to find a good picture of ANY ferrets tattooed ear but if I come across one, I'll add it later.)
Somehow, our ferret family ended up growing. We actively sought out another ferret (ended up buying two ferrets and two cages for a really good price, and arranged to sell one of them to a friend before we even picked them up.) Thus came Kate Weaslet. Hey, we already had one movie star, why not go for broke! Then we kept getting given ferrets that people who didn't research ferrets as pets decided weren't cat-like enough for them. There's a reason ferrets are described as perpetual stubborn two-year-olds! They don't cuddle and aren't going to sit still for even a nano-second unless they are sleeping. Which they do a LOT. Like 20 hours a day a lot. So they're pretty much either comatose or whirling dervishes, not a lot in between.
After Katie (who was our stereo-typical thief ferret, hid everything under the dresser or in the drawers and the cats became pretty much toyless after her arrival) we ended up with Nibbles, then Wiggy, then for a short time we had Bandit, but Bandit and Vinnie didn't get along so she found another home. When I came back from Kansas in 2006 we had a new ferret family member awaiting us, and we ended up naming him Lil Mack. Lil Mack became Big Mack (which sounded far too much like a hamburger, so was only called Mack.) Now we had a gangster theme going - Vinnie, Mack, and our cat's name was Frankie. Because ferrets don't live enormously long lives, and some of our friends came to us in not the best health, we had only our two gangsters for a short time. Then yet another unprepared person gave us yet another ferret so we were back to the three amigos.
By this time, Vinnie was a veritable senior citizen. He was just about 6 years old and, according to the books I had, ferrets only live between 5 and 7 years. Since this seemed to fit the rest of our ferrets ages, I was somewhat surprised when Mack suddenly became quite ill and declined rapidly because honestly I had been prepared for Vinnie to be the next one to go. Down to two ferrets again, we (OK, I) was hoping that didn't mean that another person would join the now completely non-existent fad of ferret owning only to find out that it wasn't for them.
A couple of weeks ago, my Vinnie started to go down hill. The ferret that taught my son not to be afraid of him, that suffered being fetched against his will when all he wanted to do was explore the living room, wasn't long for this world. Last Thursday, we said goodbye to Vinnie and told him that if he was ready it was OK to move on. And with his passing, the joy has gone out of ferret ownership for me, now, too. I'll be finding another home for Zook (who is, actually, one of those nasty, smelly, un-neutered ferrets of people's nightmares, though he is NOT mean at all - he suffers the fetching too.)
Vin WieselJanuary 2003-April 2010
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