Nippy didn't seem to be too worried about anything. She was jumping and pouncing and playing around like usual. She was eating as much as she normally did. In her mind, everything was just fine.
Mom and dad didn't think so. One day they called up someone they referred to as "doctor."' Nippy didn't pay much attention to the conversation, but she should have. Mom and dad made an appointment for her to go see the doctor.
The day of the appointment started out like any other day, except when mom and dad let them out to play. Mom put Nippy's harness on her. Nippy thought maybe they were going for walkies. Then she noticed that Fizzy and Skeezix didn't have their harnesses on.
"Why do you have your walking harness on?" Fizzy gave Nippy a confused look. "Are they just taking you for walkies? What about Skeezix and me?"
"Yeah," said Skeezix. "I want to go for walkies too!"
"I don't know," said Nippy. "This is really weird. I don't want to go by myself. That won't be any fun."
Just then mom and dad got out the pet carrier. Normally, pet carrier plus harness equaled car trip for everyone, but Nippy was still the only one with the harness.
"Time to go see the doctor, Nippy." Mom picked up Nippy and put her in the pet carrier. With that, mom , dad, and Nippy were off to see someone called the doctor.
Fizzy and Skeezix stayed at home wondering what was going on. Had mom and dad left them forever? Was something horribly wrong with Nippy? Nervously, they wandered around their cage. Occassionally they would eat, but they weren't very interested in food. they tried to patiently wait for everyone to come home.
Mom and dad had left with Nippy at about 10:00 that morning. At about 6:00 in the evening, they returned with her. Fizzy and Skeezix were very anxious to find out what had happened. When they saw the look on Nippy's face, they begand to wonder if they really wanted to know. she looked MAD!
"What happened? Where did you go? Why is the fur on your neck gone?" The questions came at her very quickly, but she waited to answer them.
"I have been to a place they call the 'vet'. It was awful! First, this strange human felt my stomach and my neck. Then she asked questions about how much we ran and ate and what kind of food we ate. The next part wasn't too bad. They put some of that yummy treat on my belly and put me in a basket." The vet had wanted to get Nippy's weight and the best way to get her to curl up was to put Ferotone on her belly so she would lick it off. Nippy didn't seem so mad about that part.
Fizzy and Skeezix looked at each other. They were confused. What was so bad about getting a treat?
"That was the only good part." Nippy looked very serious when she said this. "It got worse.
"Next, the lady forced me to open my mouth. I guess she wanted to look at my teeth or something. I just wanted to bite her and come home, but I thought I might get in trouble." Nippy might not have liked the vet, but she disliked being scolded even more.
"Then the woman stuck a cold metal thing against my belly. I don't know what it was for, but it was like she was listening to my insides. It was definately weird. After that a really bad thing happened." Nippy looked to see if she had her audience enthralled with her stranger than fiction story. They were definitely very eager to hear the rest.
"She stuck this long pointy thing in my ear and moved it around. It pulled out some gunk, but it didn't feel good at all." Nippy cringed at the thought of getting her ears swabbed.
"Then the woman took me away from the room where mom and dad were and that's when I got my neck shaved. The stuck me with a needle and I got scared. It hurt a lot to move but it was so uncomfortable, I couldn't help it. Then they said something about me moving around and that's when they shaved my paws." She held out her paw and sure enough there was a spot on it where the fur was gone. There was also a little red dot in the center like she had been stuck with a needle there too. The other paw looked the same.
At this point, Skeezix laughed. He didn't mean to and regretted it as soon as he did, but he couldn't help it.
"What's so funny?"
"You just look funny with your fur gone like that." Skeezix saw the hurt look on her face and immediately felt bad. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. Your fur will grow back. Besides, you can barely notice it."
Nippy didn't stay mad at him for long. She was more upset about what had already happened. Besides, she knew something that she wasn't going to tell them.
"The last thing they did was the worst." She continued with her story. "They said something about ear mites and then wrapped me up in a towel so tight that I couldn't move. Then the woman put some liquid in my ears. It kind of burned, but mostly it felt weird. I wanted to shake it out, but they wouldn't let me."
"Didn't anything good happen today besides the treat?" Fizzy wondered if she would ever have to go to the vet. From the sounds of it, she didn't think she wanted to.
"Well, I slept in the car. They did wake me up and let me run around grandma and grandpa's house without holding the leash. I got to sniff all kinds of new rooms. I also got some water from the cat's bowl." Nippy started to smile a bit when she thought of the rooms she explored. She had run up the stairs and sniffed a room that smelled strange. She also got to sniff a room that smelled like mom, though she wasn't sure why. That did make her feel a little better.
"Well, that wasn't so bad," said Fizzy. "Maybe everytime we go to a vet they'll let us explore new rooms on our own. That would be neat."
Just then, mom picked up Skeezix. They were wrapping him up in a towel just like they had done Nippy at the vet. Fizzy got scared. Skeezix panicked.
"What are they doing?" He cried out in confusion to Nippy.
"The doctor said that we all need the stuff in our ears. I guess they wanted to put yours in first." Nippy fet bad about it. She knew how he felt. Now she wished she had told him that the liquid stuff was for all of them.
Mom and dad tried to calm him down, but Skeezix was a big ferret. He was really strong too and more than once wriggled away from them. Finally, they doctored up his ears.
The same happened to Fizzy, although she tried to hide from them. Nippy was right. It did kind of burn, but then her ears felt pretty good.
"Hey, this isn't so bad now." Fizzy shook her head. "My ears were itchy before, but now they feel pretty good."
"Yeah, mine too, "said Skeezix.
"Well. I guess if mom and dad think it is okay, then it must be okay, "said Nippy. "I just hope I don't have to go to the vet again!"
Later, mom and dad let them run for a very long time. Then they gave them some treats for being such good ferrets.
As the three ferrets curled up in their hammock, they decided that anything that made them feel better afterwards, even if it was uncomfortable, must be okay. Especially it it results in a treat!
