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- Several years ago I fell in love with a friendly baby ferret that I saw at a
local petshop, and just had to have her. I have never owned a ferret before, but had enjoyed the ownership of gerbils,
white mice, a hamster, and few domestic rats over the years. The rats lived the longest, but only a few years at most.
Losing each of them to old-age was upsetting to me. Once, I even raised a 'mystery rodent', just a thumb-sized 'pinkie'
when I discovered him in a washed-out nest in my father's horse barn. This helpless pinkie rodent would become a much
beloved pet...
- I named the mystery pink "kookla", which very loosely translated is a Russian word for
"clown". Or in the common vernacular useage, something more like "hand puppet".
This could has just as easily been a barn rat, -I really had no idea it might be a squirrel. As s/he grew, I
could handle the rodent as easily as a domestic mouse, -albeit, much more spirited.
As it grew it sprouted rusty-red fur with creamy-white under-belly fur..., -it turned out to be a
red squirrel !
I had Kookla for several years. S/he grew from a hairless pink to a magnificient red squirrel, eventually
becoming elderly. Having slowly turned 'grey' in color and quite the senior, s/he quietly passed away one morning in
the well-padded nesting box. I was unhappy, but had known that it was coming. I wanted something that would live longer
than 'a couple of years', and knew that ferrets can live for up to 9 or 10 years. Me, suffering from 'Empty-Cage
Syndrome' began considering getting a ferret, ferret myths be they true, or not!
- Myths you know, -that ferrets stink terribly, that they are ALL aggressive and some are
downright bloodthirsty for naked ankles and toes of their owner's feet, etc. This was for the greater part, all myth
and untrue. My ferret anyway, is the sweetest thing and while she has occasionally nipped my bare toes, it was
always an attention-getting ploy on her part. Capable of inflicting a more serious wound, she has never done more than
startle me when she nipped my feet, trying to induce me to play with her. -Just letting me know that she wants to be
chased, tickled and played with.
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