Little Fuzzy

by Tundra
(Adelaide)

My housemate announced she was getting a ferret, and I was delighted. I was always fascinated by them, but had only seen them twice in real life. The little one arrived a few weeks later, 10 weeks old and already ‘second hand’- the original owner, a little girl, decided she was ‘smelly’, and her mother reluctantly passed her on.

Within a week I was addicted to the little fuzzball. She wasn’t what I expected, but as soon as I found out she was here I started researching ferrets.

She’s not ‘mine’, but I have her out and about for many hours a day, in whatever room I’m in. I just carry her from room to room as I do my chores. My shoulder is her favourite place to sleep. She comes when I call but not when my housemate calls. I’ve set up a litter tray, water bottle and food bowl in my bedroom, and ferret proofed the house. I’ve even sewn a hammock and hung it up under one of the tables in the lounge room. I happily (well, almost) clean her cage. My housemate hasn’t got enough time for her really and hasn’t researched, though she loves her. I’m training her to sit on my shoulder, she responds to ‘out you get!’ when she’s in a cupboard, I buy meat for her. When she’s playing and I’m on my laptop, she will climb up my leg and up my body to my shoulder, give my cheek a quick lick, then run off and play again.

I never knew they were such loving, intelligent little creatures, and I’ll be so sad when my housemate and I eventually part. I’m not sure what I’ll do! Will I be able to get another one? (I’m renting, and I intend to travel, and my father is allergic…) Will I be incredibly sad and lonely? Should I not have got attached? But I couldn’t resist her little fuzzy face or her love. Better to have loved and lost…