All About the Ferrets

Names: Zoe, Molly, Bjorn, Loki, and Opie
Nicknames (in order): A.D.D., Miss Spreads Em, Baby Bear, and collectively Loki and Opie are the Bad News Bears.
Breed: Ferrets
Birthdays: All were born around 2007 +- with Loki being the oldest and Opie being the youngest.

Arrival Stories:
I have owned ferrets since the 8th grade when I begged and begged my ferrets.  In a moment of weakness my mom agreed to getting a ferret if I wrote a research paper on them.  Soon ferret math hit and we had 3.  When the original one died due to cancer at a very young age (2yrs) we grieved and got 2 more making the total 4.  I went off to college and pined for my babies.  When graduation drew near I scoured craigslist and convinced my mom to pick up some ferrets while I was still in Iowa.  Zoe and Molly arrived.  By the time I graduated and came home, the last of my original gang had passed on and Bjorn very quickly arrived when I saw that Molly was too much of a sweetheart to properly occupy the insane Zoe.  I got married, moved out, and within the year got two more ferrets from the humane society, Loki and Bartleby who were suverely underweight.  Everything was great until Bartleby needed emergency surgery Chistmas Eve of 07 and passed away shortly after.  He had eaten some rubber piece and had a blockage and the surgery was botched.  Well Adam wanted another ferret and Opie was brought home.  All of our ferrets are rescues.

Personalities:
Well like all ferrets, ours are party animals.  They steal everything they can, bounce into walls, wrestle constantly, climb into places they shouldn't and pretty much just get into trouble.  Of course that's only for a very few hours each day since all that trouble leads to tired ferrets.  Ferrets sleep about 16hrs a day.  Ours share a gigantic cage that pretty much takes up our entire den.  Of course they all pile into one hammock most of the time even though there are plenty of options.

Of all our ferrets,  Zoe is the insanely smart one which makes her the most trouble maker.  She can jump 3ft baby gates and even after we went out and bought taller ones, she still finds every opportunity she can to move obstacles enabling her to leap from surface to surface until she gets into the area she wants!  Molly is our normal ferret which basically makes her not normal at all.  She is a sweetheart but way to calm to be a ferret.  I don't think Molly has ever gotten into trouble.  Bjorn is the sweet and cuddly boy named for "bear" in Norwegian.  He is also our master thief with pens being his specialty followed by shoes.  Loki went from being extremely skinny when we got him to very chunky.  He is our special ferret as for a long time we thought he was deaf, but turns out he's just stupid.  Oh Loki, Always entertaining to say the least!  And last we get to Opie.  Opie is a barrell of monkeys!  He is deaf (and a bit dumb!) but doesn't let that slow him down.  He is slowly surpassing Bjorn in his hoarding ability as he LOVES stealing all the dog's toys, even out of Vito's mouth, and also loves socks.  He is most known for teaching other dogs respect for ferrets.  Any dog that comes over to the house almost immediatley finds an Opie attached to their foot, ouch!  Vito is still scared of him.  But he is a blast and especially loves the kitty.


Likes:
Stuff to steal.  Tubes to run through.  Plastic bags, paper bags, crinkle sacks, anything that makes noises.  Furniture to climb on and jump from.  Rice boxes.  Life!!!

Pet Peeves:
Hmmm this is actually hard.  The ferrets just seem to love everything.  I suppose thier only pet peeve is having to wait to come out and play.  Oh and closed doors.

Favorite Tricks:
I have done a tiny bit in trying to teach the guys tricks.  Unforunately the smart ones are all highly suspicious of any treats I have tried so far.  So that leaves me dumb and dumber to work with, aka Loki and Opie.  The boys have managed to learn a decent rollover, although still near a lure and a beg (also with a lure).  sigh.

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