Zoe and George are the rescue ferrets of our family. This is page is for their stories...

To view more pictures of the kids, please click on their respective pictures below.

March 4, 2002--We got a call from Jason's parents about a couple of people they know from bingo. Supposedly these people acquired two ferrets and needed to find a home for one. That struck me as weird, but hey people can be strange sometimes. Anyways, Jason had to work that night and the people were in a real hurry to get rid of one of the ferrets. Yet another red flag, right? Yeah. So my mother-in-law drove me out to their house where I found two small female ferrets in a small pet carrier with an old towel. They had no water, no litter box, no toys, and some gross cat food thrown in the front of the carrier. We were told that these ferrets were kits and had had their vaccinations. The first girl I held nipped me on the chin. I don't know if she hadn't been handled much (if at all), if she was scared, or if she was just plain hungry. The next little girl had a couple of bald spots on her shoulders. The first thought that went through my head was that she had Adrenal disease. I had just gone through the losses of both of my ferrets to that horrible disease and thought that there was no way that I could leave her in these people's care and let her suffer. So she went home with me. :)

I did a lot of praying in those first couple of days of bringing her home, and it must've done some good because she doesn't have Adrenal after all. :) I believe that she had a nutritional deficiency and quite possibly lost her fur from "roughhousing" with another ferret (more on that later). Since she came with no name, we spent some time thinking of a new one for her. I wanted something feminine. So she became Zoe. She's quite the handful. :) I believe she's somewhere between 2 and 3 years of age (some kit, huh?). She's a little nippy when she plays, but she's a good girl and doesn't mean to hurt anyone. She's got a heck of a foot fetish. I know I've had ferrets before but I've never had one that has stolen this much stuff!! If she can get ahold of it, she'll steal it. She has quite a few little stuffed animals that are her "babies" and they must go into her hideyhole. :) She's a silly little clown girl. Because she's a chocolate she reminds me a lot of Opie. But she acts totally different from him. She makes me laugh in different ways. She frustrates so many people, but I can't help but sit back and laugh at them try and handle her.

**UPDATE** Zoe is actually (approximately) 4.5 years old! It's more obvious now that we've had her longer. She was just so excited about having a new home and things to play with and things to cuddle in when sleeping, that she acted younger than what she is! She's a good old girl though! She's lovey when she wants to be, sometimes giving kisses. She's been known to sleep in Jason's arms (that is if we can catch her when she's sleepy!).

**UPDATE--Jan. 2004** Zoe is starting to show signs of Adrenal disease at 6.5 y/o.

**UPDATE--Aug. 2, 2005** Zoe not only had signs of Adrenal, she had Insulinoma which we were managing with prednisilone. She fought like a soldier and lived longer than I ever thought she would. But in the end Insulinoma won, and she became very weak. We helped her cross the Bridge today.

This is Zoe in March 2002

April 1, 2002--We were over at my sister-in-law's house doing laundry when my father-in-law "warned" us that we might be getting another call from the people that had had Zoe. Sure enough when we talked to my mother-in-law she said that the people had called and had another one of Zoe's cagemates at their house. They told us that George was white, that he was under a year old, that he had his vaccinations, and that he was fixed. Do you suppose any of this was true? Not a word. I walked into their house and saw him sitting in a rickety ferret cage. As soon as I saw him I knew that he was a hob. And of course he wasn't white...he's a sable point (which isn't even close to white). Jason thought he was finally going to get me to shut up about having my "white boy", and I can tell you that he was very tempted not to bring George home. But when we thought about how they had "lied" to us, or maybe it's better to say that they were just ignorant about ferrets, we knew that it was best for him to come home with us. Especially when he bit my hand. I believe he was just hungry as they had no food, no water, not even a towel for him to lay in. Just like Zoe, they said he had had his vaccinations, but had no proof of it. I knew he wasn't under a year old as well. When we got him, George was not in rut...he is now and he does smell. It's not something that I couldn't live with...it's really not that bad. But then again I'm a pretty tolerant person. It is definitely a stronger smell and if a person doesn't like the smell of ferret to begin with they'll never like the smell of a hob in rut.

We recently took George to the vet to begin his vaccinations and schedule him for a neuter. He has a clean bill of health and was a very good boy for Doc. :) She believes that he is between 2 and 3 years of age. He has an ear hematoma, which we believe was caused from his previous owners never cleaning his ears and him scratching at his ears to get the wax out. The hematoma shouldn't be a problem as long as it doesn't affect his ear canal. He's scheduled for neutering May 16th and I expect him to pull through just fine. He may be mad at me for awhile, but I can handle that. lol

*Update* George was neutered! Yea! He had pre-op bloodwork done and everything is normal. I'm happy to say that he's resting comfortably. We're really looking forward to "introducing" the kids.

*Update* The kids are living together. :) We waited a couple weeks after George's surgery to introduce them and let them play. Before they had met one another through the cages bars. I'm happy to say they get along wonderfully!!

**Update--Jan. 6, 2004** We had to put George to sleep tonight. He started growing what looked like mast cell tumors. We tried a cortisone shot, Pred, Benedryl, Carafate and Cimetidine in the treatment of his mast cells. He had trouble pooping the first time with the tumors and then with the use of Pred the tumors went down and he started to get better. Then he took a turn for the worse over the weekend. He couldn't poop or pee and was in pain. Doc explained it as his lymphnodes in his back had swollen and were pushing onto his swollen bladder, with no room for his intestines. His bladder also felt like it had lumps on it. We are still waiting on the histopath from the biopsy taken of one of his tumors. Will post when we know the results. I miss him.
**Results** It was lymphosarcoma.

This is George in April 2002

We added another member to our family!! Visit our other ferrets, Kolby and Stormy at their pages.