You Know Your Ferret is Upset When...

...He has trashed the upstairs food-floor. 

  Whenever Rudyard has run out of food in his food bowl, or gotten quite low, he will throw a temper-tantrum. I have never actually seen him do this, because this will usually occur over night when everyone is asleep. His food bowl rests on top of blankets because occasionally he enjoys taking bits and pieces of his food and hiding them in spots he can go back to later (very much like a rat). When his food-bowl is empty or near empty, Rudyard will pull up all of his blankets. Maybe he is searching for the food bits he stashed, maybe he is so mad that bouncing about on the top floor and throwing the blankets about in a mad fashion will be the only thing that will do.

...You have just given him a thorough bath.


It does not happen every time and, in fact, the little booger is getting better and better at handling baths; but, when Rudyard is very displeased with his thorough bath (and I mean rinse, shampoo, rinse, scrub, towel ruffle, dry with the hair-dryer, brush, dry again), he will run away and hide. Last time I did not know where he was.

You see, little Rudyard wears a bell-collar so I can hear where he goes. Unlike his late brother Edgar and most other ferrets, a name-call and/or a shaking-of-treats does not pull Rudyard out from beneath his hidey-hole. Only when wearing his winter coat can you see his white blaze that runs down his head, but the significance of its existence is still prevalent: his is a deaf furrt.

Who wears their clothes when they bathe? Rudyard doesn't. He wasn't wearing his bell-collar. The mad little beast ran away from me and it took me twenty minutes to find him. He was so irked. He did not want me to hold him... cuddle him... treats were okay... but mostly, no! He was staying in his secret-spot.