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.

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.

Weazel ferrets outdoor adventures on the deck

I let the ferrets out on our back deck sometimes. They think it's totally a big adventure to be outside, and happily go ferreting around all the junk we store out there, stuff for the grill, and the garden, and the yard, and so forth. Here's Genghis, getting some sunlight on his fur.

There's so much for them to poke their noses into, and interesting stuff to burrow through, things to climb and other stuff to knock over. It's all part of the excitement, to a ferret.

Of course, once in awhile someone decides that's not enough and makes a break for it... tries to crawl down the steps, or even bail off over the side and land in the ferns.

They can disappear quickly into any underbrush, so be watchful if your ferrets go outside. The best way to catch a loose ferret is to drop a jacket or other article of clothing on the ground. Or even a shopping bag. They can't seem to resist the urge to crawl right in and make themselves comfortable.