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gabriel
Love and ferrets and pretending to be a writer.

2003-11-11 1:27 PM
daughter back, ferret gone to heaven

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Mood:
sad and happy in rapid alternation

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Reading: _A Canticle for Leibowitz_, by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Weather: cloudy (dreich 3)
The ferret is: dead. Long live the ferrets.

So. The Kid called and apologized and we are doing all right together. She was listeneing, and I was listening, and this is a good thing. I am prepared to cut off any conversations which include blatant rudeness, and I think she knows that now.

Saturday night Gregg took me out to dinner. I had been having this craving for spaghetti, and we were out of spaghetti noodles and parmesan, so what else could we do but go to The Old Spaghetti Factory? Pretty good food, and it's a lot cheaper than other places.

After dinner we stopped at the pet store so I could get another corner litter pan for Snowy and some litter and look at some other ferret stuff.

Now, a bit of background here; after Snowy went missing last month Gregg told me he thought maybe she was bored and needed a companion ferret, a thing too good for me to have even wished for. Later he told me that we should wait until we moved. Later, I told him that it looked like it was going to be awhile til we moved as there was no sign in sight and why should Snowy wait? We called a shelter, thinking to adopt a ferret who needed a home. I was discouraged when they told me that Snowy should have a younger ferret as she was young and that it wouldn't be fair to an older ferret to have a young rowdy like Snowy as cagemate since they would find her annoying. I had an appointment for a phone interview the next day anyway, in spite of there not being many young ferrets available.

Okay. So at the pet store while Gregg's off looking at some dog junk or other, I peered in at the baby ferrets just because they are so stinkin' cute. There was one little light colored one, might be called a silver mitt, with a light face and a little black nose. She was the smallest one, and scrappy on account of overcompensation, I suppose. Before Gregg could catch up to what I was up to amd stop me, I grabbed a clerk and had him pick her up for me.

Damn, what a cutie. Seriously into trying to get down, and biting. I called Gregg over when he got within range and he smiled his way over. He had a feeling I might do just this thing. I bought that baby, in spite of her biting Gregg hard enough to draw vlood, and we named her Sally Sasquatch. The naming wasn't immediate, but it came olong somewhere in there.

Snowy and the baby were working on getting acquainted Saturday night, but we were not sure enough of themtogether to put them in the same cage. As we have only the one and the carrier isnt' a nice palce for someone to sleep all night, Snowy spend the night out in the house. She had been sleeping in the napkin drawer a lot, curled up in my apron, and I don't like that a lot, feeling like she maybe couldn't get out fast enough if she had to use the litter box, so I encouraged her to sleep under the dresser by giving her some of my thermal underwear. THat was fine with her, after a brief visit in our bed, whcih would never work out because of her tendency to chew feet and its incompatibility with human sleep.

In the morning Snowy and Sally got back to work getting to know each other. Snowy kept grabbing Sally by the neck to drag her around, and she didn't every time get her by just the scruff, and so we were watching this procedure closely. Somewhere during this morning, I am not sure when. Gregg took Maui out for her walk, and they came back in, and both ferrets were accounted for after that, and we didnt' do any more coming or going after that, so we were sure Snowy did not do her Houdidni imitation and get out of the apartment like she did that other time.

Gregg rounded up Sally and took a bunch of pictures of her. See here:

http://www.pbase.com/procyon_g/ourpets

Some time in the morning Gregg discovered a ferret poop in the silverware drawer, so that my fears regarding Snowy's nap spot were realized. I cleaned it up and washed all the silverweare in the sink in soapy water and then put it in the dishwasher for good measure. With that and what was already in there it made a full load. I did not check the dishwasher for ferrets before I closed it up and started it.

We didn't see Snowy all day and looked all over the place for her. It wasn't til 6 or so that I thought of the dishwasher and hid in the office while Gregg went out to check.

This would have been a horrible accident at any time, but it is ironic that it happened the day after I got Snowy a little friend. Gregg and I were heartbroken. I felt bad about losing my pet, and also felt like I killed her, since I was the one who turned the dishwasher on. I always checked it, but that time I did not. My daughter, the one I reconciled with, cried with me, as did my other daughter.

I felt like I didn't derserve to have a little pet, especially such a defenseless and completely charming thing like a ferret. I was thinking I'd take Sally back to the pet store. I didn't deserve her, and even if I could bring myself to keep her, it wouldn't be fair for a little bitty 8 week old baby to live alone. We are way from home for over ten hours a day, and morning and evening play times are not enough to make up to a baby for being gone so long. If I was a homemaker,a nd could be with her for a lot of play times all day, that would be different, and I think humans alone could be good enough. And then there is the dog, but those play times will need to be supervised because of the size differential if nothing else.

I told Gregg that I could not afford another ferret friend, and adopting from the shelter wouldn't work for sure with a baby. He mentioned that he had been thinkning about getting a ferret of his own.

Monday, yesterday, at lunchtime he took a long lunch and went to the pet store and bought the baby he had his eye on the day before. He was going to pick her up after work, but then decided to get her then and take her home since he wanted to check up on Sally anyway. We live 17 miles from where Gregg works, so that's some trip to check up on a pet during lunch. Anyway, that is what he did and the new baby is adorable, too, and incredibly soft. There are not pictures of her yet as we have been very tired -- grief, besides bringing tears, brings fatigue -- and the light is best in the daytime, which we do not have during the week when Gregg is home. He goes to work in the dark and comes home in the dark.

Gregg's baby ferret is called Tazo. She is afraid of Maui, my stepdog, but Sally likes her. Sally is not biting any more (I think she was just frantic with overstimulation at the pet store), but only nipping lightly, and so is Tazo. Sally is actually the quieter of the two babies.

I am scared of having the reponsibility of these little guys. In fact, if I was to be of childbearing age again, knowing what I do now, I wouldn't have children, either. I am no way good enough to have pets, let alone children. I am sure glad I had kids before I was smart enough to know I shouldn't have them. I was audacious and unconcerned. I was also very very lucky that none of them ever did the equivalent of getting into the dishwasher.

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:: JOURNAL HOME :: SUBSCRIBE TO THIS JOURNAL :: Click on Kathy Gabriel and read my stories :: 2-in-1 Romance by me (but the back cover's misspelled!. grrrrr.) :: November is National Novel Writing Month! :: The Feel Good Manual - happiness can be learned :: Mugs with the wet ferret :: Fractured Frugal Frieds - the best frugality site around :: The ferrets, and other pics by a talented local (very local) photographer :: Kettins_Bob's journal :: Clarion SF & F writing workshop :: Genevieve's journal (Clarion classmate) :: Phil's website (Clarion classmate) :: Nnedi Okorafor's blog (Clarion classmate) :: Online magnetic poetry :: Dave's interactive html tutorial :: Make a snowflake here - WARNING: Addictive! ::