Conquering the deck

©2012 Chris Benedict

Genghis, looking for trouble on the deck. It's a little too far to jump down. Or is it? I better not take my eyes off him or we might find out.

Boneless sleeping ferret

Seems like they can sleep in any position whatsoever. Or maybe he just fell asleep in the middle of exploration. Whatever the excuse, I couldn't resist snapping a picture of it.

Ferret games

Here's a variant on the ferret game I like to call "Bag". This video stars Genghis and Attilla.

Ho, Ho, Ho!

Wow, I can't believe I haven't found time to blog for 6 months! But I wanted to share some holiday pix and some thoughts on making your ferret holidays bright.

For example, here's an attempt at a jolly holiday photo. The little red hat has a drawstring, so the ferret can't just immediately shake it off. But you can probably tell that he wasn't exactly thrilled to have it on his head. In fact, he was trying to back right out of my grip.

Getting a good shot is a matter of setting things up beforehand, and having great timing. I've never had much luck with getting them to cooperate with my efforts, even if I offer treats. Ideally, you could set up the scene and let the ferret rampage through it -- if you can convince them that it's their idea, they might cooperate momentarily.

Here's another great shot, as Pan tries to exit the foreground:

Cooperative, he ain't. A second later, I got this as he tried to exit the hat:

Needless to say, the thrill of getting that perfect holiday shot still eludes me. But I had a lot of fun (or exasperation, depending upon your interpretation of the word "fun") trying.

Ferret excavations, part 2...

Ferrets 2, Chris 0...

Yes, they did it again, while I was in the garden harvesting lettuce for lunch. I forgot to take pictures last time, but this time I had the camera in my pocket. This is how they think the kitchen should be redecorated.

Pan inspects the redecoration committee's efforts.

I think this might work for winter, what with the "snowy" look. But maybe they were trying for "Christmas in July"? Either way, I'm not eager to clean it up until I have assurances from the husband that ferret-proofing has been accomplished.

Festive drifts create the illusion of winter in the summer time.

Or maybe we should just store the corn meal in a different type of container. Sigh. Ferrets -- you can't keep them out of trouble, but maybe you can put the trouble out of reach...

Ferret excavations...

Argh! I found Attilla in the kitchen cabinet this afternoon, having removed the lid from a sealed plastic container and proceeded to excavate vast quantities of corn meal. What a naughty boy! I spent twenty minutes pulling everything out and shoveling flour-drifts into the trash. All better now.

The Poop Fairy...

...came to my house today. Yes it's true... there IS a Poop Fairy. See, I have photographic evidence, and all 4 ferrets swear they didn't do it. Look what he left me...

Poop.

That's a litter box right next to it. I guess his aim was a little off.

Luckily, I keep used paper towels that aren't too soiled, so I have some way to deal with these occurrences. Reduce, REUSE, Recycle or Compost, we always say. There's some toilet paper that got ferret-sculpted last week, too. It might as well serve its purpose before it gets discarded.

Answer to poop.

Now if I can just figure out how to keep that Poop Fairy from visiting quite so often.