We have two gerbils, Rocky and Big Dig. They have cute little personalities. The kids love them.
If they got loose here in Massachusetts, they wouldn't make it through the winter. If they got loose in California, they would turn into yet another introduced pest, wreaking havoc with agriculture and what's left of the native environment.
Now meerkats..that's a different story. They have the best features of both dogs (pack animals) and cats (burying their feces...keeping the burrow clean, constant self-grooming). They appear to be both reasonable intelligent and affectionate. Plus they'll help keep household pests down. (I hear many houses in African keep them around for just this reason)
Last week I was at one of those PetLand stores that sells (among other things) ferrets. There were two pens, one with about 10-15 ferrets, and the other with just two. The latter pair seemed extra playful, tumbling over each other and having a good time.
Well, after playing with the pair for awhile, one of them bit me on the finger and, frankly, wouldn't let go. It took a good five minutes to figure out how to get him to let go of my finger. Most of what we tried of course made him bear down harder. And unfortunately he'd gotten a large enough chunk of my fingertip that if I had just pried him off it would have done considerable damage.
Well, we finally got the sucker off of my finger, and I let it bleed for awhile, washed it with antiseptic, and bandaged it up. Only then did we notice the key difference between the two pens: the one with 10-15 had a sign that said, "We may bite", and the pen with 2 had a sign that said, "WE BITE".
20 years ago my folks had a ferret. It had this funny habit of taking clean, balled-up pairs of socks and dragging them to different places in the house to hide them. It wouldn't take individual socks; and if you balled up dirty socks in hopes it would ignore the clean ones, no dice. Needless to say you had to put your laundry away promptly.
One day they had trouble locating her. Eventually my dad pulled the washer & dryer away from the wall and discovered that she had climed through an opening in the back of the washer. She was limp and unresponsive. His guess was that she had somehow gotten herself caught on the drum during spin cycle. They nursed her back to relative health, but ever since that incident it could never walk in a straight line again.
The smell was a definite negative but it wasn't too bad a pet, overall. I might have felt differently if I lived there.
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9 comments:
LOL!
That's not the only place ferrets are illegal. I think it's silly.
Gerbils are illegal in California.
Gerbils are cute. Oh, Gerbils are cute.
We have two gerbils, Rocky and Big Dig. They have cute little personalities. The kids love them.
If they got loose here in Massachusetts, they wouldn't make it through the winter. If they got loose in California, they would turn into yet another introduced pest, wreaking havoc with agriculture and what's left of the native environment.
But they'd be cute!
"Gerbils are illegal in California."
I don't know about that. Ferrets, however, are illegal in California.
Ferrets stink! But they're cute, in a weaselish sort of way, and intelligent.
I know some ferret people. They're crazy about them. It's sort of frightening. It's like talking to "9/11 Truth" people, or militant vegans.
Bah to ferrets.
Now meerkats..that's a different story. They have the best features of both dogs (pack animals) and cats (burying their feces...keeping the burrow clean, constant self-grooming).
They appear to be both reasonable intelligent and affectionate. Plus they'll help keep household pests down. (I hear many houses in African keep them around for just this reason)
Bring on the meerkats!
Last week I was at one of those PetLand stores that sells (among other things) ferrets. There were two pens, one with about 10-15 ferrets, and the other with just two. The latter pair seemed extra playful, tumbling over each other and having a good time.
Well, after playing with the pair for awhile, one of them bit me on the finger and, frankly, wouldn't let go. It took a good five minutes to figure out how to get him to let go of my finger. Most of what we tried of course made him bear down harder. And unfortunately he'd gotten a large enough chunk of my fingertip that if I had just pried him off it would have done considerable damage.
Well, we finally got the sucker off of my finger, and I let it bleed for awhile, washed it with antiseptic, and bandaged it up. Only then did we notice the key difference between the two pens: the one with 10-15 had a sign that said, "We may bite", and the pen with 2 had a sign that said, "WE BITE".
Oops!
Ferret story #2:
20 years ago my folks had a ferret. It had this funny habit of taking clean, balled-up pairs of socks and dragging them to different places in the house to hide them. It wouldn't take individual socks; and if you balled up dirty socks in hopes it would ignore the clean ones, no dice. Needless to say you had to put your laundry away promptly.
One day they had trouble locating her. Eventually my dad pulled the washer & dryer away from the wall and discovered that she had climed through an opening in the back of the washer. She was limp and unresponsive. His guess was that she had somehow gotten herself caught on the drum during spin cycle. They nursed her back to relative health, but ever since that incident it could never walk in a straight line again.
The smell was a definite negative but it wasn't too bad a pet, overall. I might have felt differently if I lived there.
Ferrets, Ferrets?
We don't need no stinking ferrets!
But that Will Ferret guy who was it that "Stranger Than Fiction" movie is pretty funny.
I take it you've seen this animation?
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