Mokey and Her Beloved Tub

Until now, I could only assume Mokey enjoyed her playtime "time-outs" in the bath tub. Lately she has been scratching at the gate which has lead me to believe she actually is trying to tell me she'd like to have tub time now. So this evening I picked her up and took her in there and placed her in the tub. As I went to drop the blanket in, she started hopping & squeeking - dooking all over the tub! I played with her with the blanket for a minute and then left her happily attacking the drain. Looks like this situation is working out for the best for both of us. :)

Stop Digging!

So I got out the water basin for the ferrets to play with and put a few of the usual Easter eggs in it for added entertainment. Mokey chose to dig at the towel I placed under it. Why does she dig everything but the scratching pad I got for her? That she poops on. Ugh! This is a picture from a previous water play.

Sleeping Arrangements

With my parents coming for a visit, I managed to have fresh sheets on the bed, plenty of pillows, and a tiny fold out couch for myself in the living room. Never did I imagine that Mokey would be the one who ended up needing rearranged sleeping quarters.

Exhausted, I put the girls to bed around midnight and planned on putting myself down immediately after. Mokey, however, had other plans. She wanted to play. When Mokey wants out of her cage she rattles the doors. It has the same effect on me as nails on a chalk board for most people. I actually think this action/sound has a direct link to my blood pressure. I let the Mokster out to play. And after running her ragged -or so I thought-I tucked her and myself in.

Some time around 2am Mokey decided she still wanted to play. Que intense shaking of the cage doors! I try laying really quietly like a kid who closes his eyes and thinks that no one can see him. Mokey proves smarter than a small child. She persists. I bring her out for another play. Then I return her to her cage with ferretone in her water dish and start to drift off to sleep...and..then..."SHAKE A SHAKE SHAKE!" I pass her a treat...pause...."SHAKE A SHAKE SHAKE!" I'm contemplating putting her in the bathtub at the exact moment my mom comes out of the bedroom and suggests, "Maybe we can put her in the bathtub?" (No one would ever doubt that the basis for my child rearing techniques stem from my mother.) Apparently I was not the only one Mokey had kept up for the past hour.

So in the tub she went!

I grabbed the Mokster, a blanket, and two toys. I tied the bathroom cabinet shut with some lace provided by Mom, plopped the noisemaker into the tub with her meager belongings and closed the door tight.

And everyone slept peacefully. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

I used this method the next night around 3am, but implemented it with immediate response to the first "SHAKE!" with military speed and precision.

I am continuing to use this method during the night and once during one of Mokey's freak outs. (A "Mokey Freak Out" refers to when Mokey engages in very bad behavior, usually involving some kind of destruction via digging. When put in her cage to stop this behavior she goes crazy throwing a fit, upturning her toys, throwing things down the stairs, and pushing litter paper everywhere - yuk.)

Now she just gets the tub. She seems fine with it. I've never heard her digging at the door. She can get in and out of the tub and now I have a bucket in the bathroom with her sleeping and playing supplies. She seems to play outside the tub for awhile and then climb back in and snooze in her purple towel. She seems to enjoy the adventure during her bored/frustrated time, and I enjoy the peace and the lessening of the chest pains she frequently causes.

I don't think Mokey will ever grow into her name, being named after the kind, peace and friendship loving Fraggle, but I did notice in writing her nickname "Mokster" that it does resemble "Monster" at quick glance. Hmmmmm?

This is what I found the other day when I went to get Mokey out of the bathroom. She had gotten creative.

Mokey sleeping in the trash can

Mokey Pood on My Bed

So last night we were all having our after work play time. I was catching up on missed tv shows on the computer and the girls were wrestling on my bed. All of a sudden I heard a squeak. Not the dooking squeak but the "ouch" squeak. I gave my usual response of yelling, "Girls!" That's usually sufficient enough to break up the wrestling into a run and chase.

But this time I heard nothing. No more squeaks, no running, nobody jumping down from the bed. Just like if you have children, you know a sudden silence means something sinister is going on. So I pause Modern Family, and go into my room.

I immediately see two ferrets and a pile of poo on my quilt. Fawn is in her usual nonchalant stance. She looks at me as I enter then saunters toward the poop, sniffs it, and returns a look to me. I'm pretty sure if I were in fact dealing with kids, Fawn would be the tattle tail. She always seems to be around mayhem with this look of "Look Mom, look what she did. I didn't do it, but she did."

Poor Mokey is sadly in her usual stance - when she has done something wrong, or more broadly, when she is terrified. Mokey is frozen like a deer in headlights. This stance tells me she did it (I figured anyway) and that she knows its a bad thing. I don't know what Mokey experienced before she came here, but I know it was bad. Sometimes I wonder to what extreme due to her behavior and the fact that her fears are still so strong after a whole abuse free year here at Disney a la Ferret.

Anyway, she's in complete statue mode. I check to see how bad by using one finger to touch the top of her head. She doesn't move, doesn't flinch, its as if this action isn't taking place. I move the nosy Fawn onto the floor and say to Mokey a few words in my deep serious voice. Yes, I still disciplined her. I liked that she looked at me and listened while I told her no pooping on mommy's bed. She wasn't afraid of me while I disciplined her. This shows how far we've come!

In the past she would have hid under the couch for hours and I would have had to pretend to be asleep in the other room before she'd ever show herself again. Then I'd have to catch her and she'd bit me -those good horribly painful break-the-skin bites. Anyway, after a few words I put her on the floor and began cleaning up my comforter. The ferrets hovered around on the floor. After all was cleaned up, Mokey came right up to my feet for attention. Now we're getting to some normalcy. You can do bad things, I will discipline you, and then it goes back to everybody loves each other. And most importantly, nobody gets hurt here. I tell Mokey that all the time.

She still has a few episodes now and then. Just this past month it happened two times, that I moved while she was playing which caught her off guard and she was scrambling under the couch and refusing to come out.

Baby steps....Baby steps

Happy Gotcha Day Mokey

One year ago today I brought Mokey home from the GCFA to join our family. Let's see what she's been up to....

Climbing
Tunneling
Mischief (Putting elephants in her water dish)
More Climbing
More Mischief
Yet again - More Mischief (in the dishwasher at Grandma & Grandpa's)
Fun on Easter
Fun on Christmas
Fun in the Club House of Boxes
Playing Inside and Elephant, Inside a Laundry Basket
Playing with eggs in water in a basin
Playing With Her Sisters In A Box
Sleeping in Her Favorite Sweater
Going to the Pride Parade
Eating Scrumptious Dinners with Her Sisters
Choosing Videos (Looks like Mokey prefers Sci-Fi, fantasy, and Christmas)
All these adventures have worn Mokey out!

Happy Gotcha Day Mokey. We love you

Watch & Wait Update

So I was looking at some pictures of the girls the other day, when I realized that when I adopted Mokey she was very skinny and had no hair on her tail - as she is now. The shelter told me she was healthy, it was just from living at the shelter. The pictures from two months later showed a fat, fluffy Mokey with a fully hairy tail. Mokey has been running around like her usual energetic self and eating really well. I think she does have that seasonal thing. As long as she is energetic and eating, I'm going to let her be and see if she is all fluffy again by February.

Now Kyra of course can't be that easy. Kyra seemed to get better and have more energy. But last night she was lethargic and when she tried to walk her legs kept splaying out. When I came home from work tonight she just laid in my lap. I called the vet and he thinks she may have insulinoma in addition to the enlarged spleen - which I can still feel in her side. He said to feed her and as long as she was responsive she should be fine. If she gets unresponsive I'm to rub some honey on her gums. I'm taking her to the vet tomorrow to get her blood sugar tested again. She may be put on steroids. Insulinoma is another very common ailment in older ferrets.

Ferret Health: Watch & Wait

Kyra and Mokey are both under medical observation.

After shedding was completed, Mokey forgot to grow in her winter coat. She also got very thin. So Mokey, once referred to as Bear for her large size and fluffy coat, is now skinny and has no hair on her tail. I see her eat plenty and aside from sleeping in in the morning, she's still quite active. The vet suspects adrenal disease even though she is only 2 1/2 years old. It's also a possibility that she has Seasonal something, which is caused by artificial light confusing ferrets during the shedding season into thinking maybe it is not actually winter and so they don't grow their winter coat. And so we wait to see.

In the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, "It is not a tuma." I discovered a lump in Kyra's left side the day after Thanksgiving. She has recently gained a lot of weight and is very fluffy. I was just remarking how healthy my little Kyra had become. Her coat is silky soft. I thought the weight was due to impending winter weather. However, I soon noticed she was walking a bit funny, and while still moving about, she wasn't running about. So I did a body check and found the lump. The vet determined through ex-ray that her spleen was enlarged. Its filling up with white blood cells for some infection that only it is aware of. So Kyra was given antibiotics and I am to observe and wait. Its pressing a bit on her pancreas, giving her slightly low blood sugar. If it shrinks back up - good. If it grows, she'll need surgery.

Both these test results are worth the grand total of two weeks pay. Yikes. And I'm supposed to bring them back in January to test again to see if anything has changed.

For now, I watch and wait.

My Silly Sleepers

The Upside-Down Zonk: featuring Mokey


There's Too Many Ferrets in This Hammock, by Fawn

The Packaging is Always Best!

Since I was ordering the ferret playpen for our trip home for Thanksgiving, I figured I'd go ahead and get some Christmas presents since they would be included in the flat shipping rate. By the way, Doctors Foster and Smith has become my favorite place to order ferret items from. Not only do they have a flat shipping rate, which is great when ordering cages and playpens, but they have a huge variety of ferret items. Since the girls could not have their Christmas gifts yet, I let them play with the packaging peanuts and box. Don't worry, the peanuts dissolve when wet so they can't choke or cause blockage. Yep, I tested them first to make sure. Took a lick! Its part of a mom's job.

Fawn preferred to dig
Kyra preferred to burrow
Mokey!? Mokey!? Where are you!?
Yes, she's in there. You can see a bit of white fur in the center a bit to the left. She was really hard to snap a shot of.

There she is!!!
I played Find the Egg with Fawn. She really loves a good Easter egg.
Here's a video of Fawn finding the egg.

You Say Goodbye and I Say Hello

This weekend the girls said goodbye to their old cage and hello to a new Ferret Nation cage.

I think this was hardest on Mom because I loved the old three level cage. It was designed perfectly with its first level bathroom and kitchen, second level half floor for sleeping sack and hanging hammock, and third level full floor for plenty of play boxes, balls, and tubes. So why did I replace it? One word: Mokey.


This perfect cage is all wire: sides and floors. Mokey feels that she should be able to poo anywhere she feels like. She wakes up and poos in the nearest corner, getting poo on the sleeping sack or raining down each wire on the side of the cage. She poos on the third level so it falls down into the hammock. She poos right up against the wires so it falls out onto the wall. In one more word: Ew.

Common toys in the play space were a shoe box
with tissue paper and balls, tube, and jingly strawberry.

I couldn't stand a half hour cleaning project every time I came home from work. It's much harder to get the poo out of the wiring than I would ever have thought.

Most ferret cages are made with shelving so tiny and weak that it is very unsafe and there is zero play space. Also, these genius cage designers design the cages to have ample open air space as if to accommodate a bird. This also causes the ramps to be very steep and the ferrets to fall frequently. One cage has a tube ramp that goes straight up and down. Um, ferrets don't know how to use rip cords.

So Ferret Nation it is. Ferret Nation is sturdy and has enough room for playing. It is also way too large and set up on a rolling shelf so the ferrets cannot get in and out and it takes up twice the space for no reason. Also, you have to buy a separate ramp (not included) so the ferrets can get in and out. This, by the way, costs more to ship than buy. It is also way too high off the ground so the ferrets are afraid to use the ramp and usually do a few tentative steps down before sliding, rolling, and toppling to the ground. And, yes, this is the best ferret cage on the market.

So anyway, despite its flaws the girls seem to like it. We'll see how it holds up to Mokey. So far it's done well its first day and a half.

Fawn helped with the unpacking.

Mokey tried to help by running off with the bag of screws. So all three got to wait in the old cage until Mom was finished with the assembling. Three hours later, Ta-Da!

Mokey and Fawn Play Tetherball

Romping Mokey and Fawn

These two are some playful fools.

Sleeping Sisters

Just like children, the little devils look like angels when they're asleep.

Kyra (6), Mokey (2), Fawn (4)

Mokey Celebrates MY Birthday

No, no Mokey, that's my birthday card!

Where's Mokey?

Everybody loves Hide N' Seek. The ferrets play it all the time with me. Sometimes its a fun game at playtime. Sometimes its a frantic game when I'm trying to round up the girls so I can get to work on time! My favorite time is when I enter the room and I hear a rustling and I decide I must seek the ferret.

Hmm, where is that sound coming from?
"Crackle, crackle, crackle"


Anyone in here?




Found you Mokey!

Mokey's Update

Mokey has now been a member of the family for just over six months. When she arrived as an adoption from the GCFA she was skinny, dirty, terrified, and a violent biter--as you may recall from earlier blogs.

Taken on Mokey's first day home. Dec. 2009

How is she doing now?

I'd say she's made herself at home.

She is definitely no longer afraid of me. She is fearless. She is a happy, healthy, fat ball of energy that loves to run around, chase jingle balls, wrestle with her sisters, dig and scratch at the paper and shoe boxes in her cage, and is an expert in ferret bowling.



Despite her happiness, I still have to say, SHE IS CRAZY. She trusts me enough to let me pull her out of the sleeping ferret pile under the couch when its time to go back in the cage. I just reach in, grab something fuzzy and pull it out. No problem, she's used to this. I have previously posted a video of me waking up the girls and patting their little heads. Ohh, so cute. BUT THEN... like the other day...I reach into the girls' cage to pat them all awake for morning playtime and she sticks her head out while I'm petting Kyra , grabs on to my arm and shakes me like a dog shakes its kill. She managed to get me twice before I could get my arm out. I was cut and bleeding and it hurt so bad, and she had the nerve to look at me like "G' morning." She still has a bit of Vampiress in her and she sneaks in a very painful bite every couple of days.

WATCH OUT!

She also has a very bad habit of pooing on the third floor of the ALL WIRE cage. So poo rains down on the hammock below and I think sometimes on the food, cause all of a sudden I notice that no one is eating out of one of the food dishes. I'm surprised Kyra and Fawn haven't said anything to her because they are all very upset when they can't sleep in the hammock. As I am very upset when I have to scrub a poopy hammock and try to clean all the poo out of the wiring. Its a lot more difficult than one would think!

I am glad Mokey is so happy. But she still makes me so mad. And its very disappointing to be afraid of your ferret. Every time she comes walking over to me I panic. I know she's going to bite me somewhere! The other girls will crawl all over me and behind me and I will wrestle them with my hand. But I have to move Mokey cause I know its only a matter of seconds before she goes for the softest, most tender part of my arm. I have made a few, short attempts at hand wrestling with her and they have been successful. She does bite gentler at these times.

Ever hear of a devil in disguise?

Well, Mokey Loves It!

My mom bought me a beautiful sweater for Christmas, but it just didn't quite work for me. It worked perfectly for Mokey, however. She loves it! Mom, how could this not make you happy to see what joy your sweater has brought?