Ferrets!

As you know I adopted Tess & Rigby from a shelter. I decided today to send them an update about the babies. They posted it on their site! You can view it here to see the pics too, but here's what I wrote:

Greetings!

It's been about 6 months since Tess & Rigby joined me in my little apartment on First Hill and I thought I'd send an update about how they are doing. In the pics Rigby is flopped on the sidewalk because she gets bored, or tired or annoyed by the confines of the leash I'm not sure which, and just stops walking. Tess is ready to go home and will pull me there by the sheer force of her mighty will.

I adopted Tess & Rigby after my 2nd ferret, Baxter died. I had originally been hesitant to get another ferret and considered getting a cat or just going animalless, but after about a week of all aloneness in my apartment I decided a little bundle of fur was just what I was looking for. When I got to the shelter I had originally made up my mind that I would only adopt 1. Famous last thoughts. I spoke with the volunteers just checking out the ferrets and they mentioned that Tess & Rigby were cagemates and had been there already a year. They weren't kits anymore and that made them harder to place. That made up my mind for me. They came home with me that day. It's been 6 months and I think we are all fairly happy. Tess is still a little bit skittish sometimes, but seeks me out in the morning to wrassle with her. She has an incredible curiosity and a penchant for digging in my potted plants. I've given up on the health of the plants and just let Tess do her thing. Apparently the dig box with dirt from the plants is not the same thing at all. I've been most excited recently to find Tess curled up on my bed in the morning. Not every morning, but the mornings she does make me so happy. That was always one of my favorite things Baxter would do, sleep in a little warm ball next to my knees. Rigby is my trouble girl. She is into everything! She has found that by climbing on the trash can in the bathroom she can fall into the tub and join me in the shower. She's usually happy with that until she realizes she's getting wet. Then she discovers that the walls of the tub are too tall and slippery for her and she jumps around like a spastic squirrel until I rescue her. She's like a little puppy sometimes, following me all over the apartment to see what I'm doing and where I'm going. Our one disagreement is her tendency to bite my feet. She gets a little time out when she does it and a lot of praise when she sniffs around my feet without the little love nip. She also seems to like being on the leash in the great outdoors more than Tess does. Although once she gets bored or tired (who knows?) she just flops down wherever we are and that's it, we're done I have to scoop her up and carry her home. We go to a park near my house and they can scurry in the grass and dig in the dirt. Tess historically has been very upset when I take her outside so I don't force it and then this is just time for Rigby and me. They both get to be free roam in the apartment and have explored all the corners. Tess has found some balls of fur that she has claimed as her toys. She carries them around the apartment and hides them in hidey holes. She will wrassle the big hand to death if I try to take them away from her. Rigby has claimed all the cheweasels as hers and has collected them all into my carrier that they both came home in. She found about 5 of them floating around the apartment. Apparently I was under the misguided impression that Baxter actually ate them. She didn't, just hid them. They are providing me a great deal of joy and humor every day. Even when I'm cursing them for walking across my head at 3:00 AM or knocking a fresh can of soda off the bookshelf I find myself smiling because it is far better than no little fuzzy friend at all.