by Lynda Chitwood

Created on: January 15, 2009

Ferrets are illegal in California.
We can't seem to find out why, but the closest answer seems have something to do with ferrets being let loose in Australia, proliferating and upsetting the natural balance. Go figure.

So it was surprising one day a few years ago, when my husband sent me a text. "Do we want a ferret?" it said. Gee, I never gave it much thought. Or any thought , for that matter. It turns out that a co-worker of his, a young man with far more disposable income than common sense, had purchased a ferret for his kids. He did this in a period when he was separated from the children's mother. When mommy moved back in, she refused to have the ferret in her home, so "Cookie" was moved to their garage. Ferrets are social creatures and they need to spend at least some time each day expending their huge amounts of energy or they can become ill. The young man knew this and began looking for a new home for her, which seemed to be very much OK with his kids, so I assumed that the novelty of a ferret as pet had already worn off.

After much research on the care and history of ferrets, including trying to figure out why California
had banned them, we went and picked up our new pet, whom we re-named Ferret Bueller. When we first brought her home, she was barely able to walk, having spent too much time in her cage, but after a week or so with us, she found her wheels, entertaining us for hours with her antics. She's completely spoiled and something of a celebrity in our apartment complex. She once sneaked out the door and the little girl next door saw her and had her pinned on the porch with a broom, saying, "Isn't this your weasel?", while her cousin screamed and squealed behind her.

But this is not a tale of a noble cause to save a neglected animal. I am an animal lover. Dogs, cats, hamsters, rabbits, tortoises, snakes, you name it. My husband, on the other hand..not so much. He likes dogs, but only certain large breeds, and preferably the ones that don't bark. He claims to be allergic to cats, but I suspect it is more a case of detesting the very existence of the species. We were foster-parenting a chinchilla (my daughter's) for about a year, and while he liked the chinchilla and found her entertaining, he never got really attached to her. He loves this Ferret. He has been known to come home from a hard day's work, grumbling and grumpy, only to stand at the ferret's cage and talk baby-talk to her. So I worry what will happen if and/or when something bad happens

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