Mom, Dad, Nippy and Fizzy had been a family of four for about two years now. Nippy and Fizzy, though adopted from different pet stores, played together just like they were real sisters. All said, they were a very happy family.
Little did they know that this day held surprises for them all.
At the same time in the big town, Skeezix woke to a warm, bright cage. Skeezix is also a ferret, but he lives in a pet store. Things originally weren't so bad because he had other ferrets to play with and wrestle with. Now he was alone. All the others had been adopted and he didn't much like being alone in the cage. Sure the big people who worked at the store played with him, but it just wasn't the same. He longed to be adopted too.
Skeezix is an albino ferret meaning that he has white fur and pink eyes. Albinos tend to have a bad reputation. People think that they are mean and bite more than other ferrets. Skeezix wasn't like that. He had learned that you can't bite people like you can other ferrets. It hurts the people and they make loud noises that scare him. Even though he doesn't bite, he still hadn't been adopted. That made him very sad.
Whenever mom and dad went to the big town, they stopped at the pet store to play with the ferrets. Usually there were lots of ferrets to play with. When they stopped in today, they were surprised that there was only one ferret, Skeezix.
Mom asked the lady at the pet store if they could play with Skeezix. The lady got him out of his cage and handed him to mom.
Skeezix was so excited! Here was a chance to get adopted. These looked like nice people to him. They smiled when they held him and when he let them cuddle him. This was nice and all, but he wanted to play too. So they put him on the floor and sat down with him. Then they started wrestling with him. Oh, how he loved that! They tickled his belly and he pretended to bite them. That only made them laugh and smile more.
I really hope these people adopt me, Skeezix thought to himself. I like playing with them and they seem so nice. They must have other ferrets because I can smell other ferrets, but there aren't any here at the pet store. That means if they adopt me, I will have friends to play with!
Mom and dad were talking about the same thing.
"He's so cute!" Mom scratched Skeezix on his head as she said this.
"I know," said dad, "but can we afford to adopt him?"
Mom thought abou that long and hard. Finally she said, "If you think that Nippy and Fizzy will get along with him, then we'll adopt him."
With that, there was a new member to the Miske family: a very large, white male ferret. Although he wasn't very old, Skeezix was a boy and boy ferrets get much larger than girl ferrets. He wasn't full-grown, but he was already bigger than Nippy and Fizzy. So with big ferret in hand, mom and dad went home.
Nippy and Fizzy could semll that something was different when mom and dad came back. There was a new smell, but it smelled like ferret. Nippy was worried. She was the big ferret around here and a new ferret might mean trouble.
"I don't know if I like this," Nippy said. "I smell a new ferret. It might be trouble."
Fizzy on the other hand was excited. She liked everybody. "Don't be such a spoil sport, Nippy. I think it will be exciting to have someone new for us to play with."
Fizzy was younger than Nippy by only a month, but to look at them you would think it was more than that. Nippy was a big ferret as far as girl ferrets are concerned. She was stronger than Fizzy and more responsible. For the most part, she did what she was told and kept out of trouble.
Fizzy, on the other hand, got into trouble all the time. She loved to climb on everything and open everything. If there was something within her reach, she wanted to play with it. She had no fear of falling because she had jumped so much and fallen just as much trying to get onto desks and windowsills. Whenever she fell, she just shook it off and tried again. Usually she kept trying until she made the jump or got bored. This fascinated mom and dad, but it usually meant more supervision during playtime.
"Maybe with another ferret," said Fizzy, "I won't get in as much trouble. Then again, I might get into more!"
Skeezix was nervous. What if the other ferrets didn't like him? Sure, the humans were fun, but he wasn't going to be sleeping in the same cage as the humans. He wanted the others to like him and play with him.
Mom and dad decided that a nose-to-nose, one-on-one introduction would be best. Let them sniff each other and get use to each other before putting them down. Since Fizzy was so excited and practically climbing the walls, they took her out first.
Dad held Skeezix and mom held Fizzy. The humans waited patiently to see what the ferrets would do.
Now Skeezix was really nervous. Here was this little ferret that was much darker than he was. She sniffed at him for awhile.
"Hi! My name is Fizz-Gig. What's yours?" Fizzy really liked this new guy. He was so BIG!
"I'm Skeezix." Skeezix was starting to calm down a bit. Fizzy seemed like a nice ferret. She acted like she liked him.
Mom put Fizzy down after deciding the two would get along okay. Then she got Nippy.
Skeezix felt nervous again. This was a bigger ferret. She was probably the oldest.
Nippy sniffed him. "I'm Nippy. I'm the oldest around here. We have a nice home and nice humans. Try not to get into trouble."
Nippy wasn't sure if she liked this guy or not. He was so much bigger than she was -- almost twice her size! To be honest, she was nervous about him. What if he tried to bully them around?
"Hi, I'm Skeezix. I hope that we can be friends." He said this because she didn't seem to like him too much.
"We'll just see how things go, skeezix. I don't know you very well, but so far you seem okay. We'll just have to see." At least she left the door open for bonding.
After all introductions had been made, mom and dad pust everyone on the floor to run and play.
Skeezix decided to explore his new home. Suddenly he felt a cold nose on his side. He looked and there was Fizzy following him around.
"I'll show you around and tell you where everything is," she said.
"OK."
Side by side they wandered around the room. "That's the big chair that mom and dad sit in. Watch out for it because sometimes it moves and could roll on us." Fizzy was describing the plastic sticks that held up a big object. Skeezix could see how this would be dangerous. It could hurt even him and he was big!
Next they came to some brown floor-like stuff. Until now, everything under his feet in this new place had been soft and blue, but this was different. This wasn't as soft and it was brown.
"That's the place where mom and dad come and go. They open that white door and leave. I tried to dig under it once, but they scolded me and put this brown thing here." Fizzy's eyes twinkled as she remembered what she use to do. "I still dig and this brown stuff makes a neat noise, but I haven't been able to get under the door." Suddenly her eyes got bright. "Maybe you can help me! You must be stonger than me. I bet you could get under the door." She waited for him to answer, but when he didn't, she went on with the tour.
"This black thing is our cage. Isn't it big? It has three levels. The first level is the bathroom. the second level is just where we sit sometimes and the third level has the food and water. The top level is also where we can get into the hammock to sleep. I think they put another hammock in. I can't wait to try it out!"
"How do you get to the other levels?" Skeezix's cage at the pet store didn't have levels.
"We have ladders. At first we fell down them a lot, but now we can go up them just fine."
Skeezix had never fallen before. He thought it might hurt a lot. He was about to find out because just then, mom picked him up and put him on the very top level of the cage.
He found his food and water and how to get into the hammock, but he was scared. H didn't like being up so high. How was he going to get down? Mom nudged him towards the ladder. His legs felt like they were turning to goo. He tried to walk down, but he slid on the smooth plastic coating and would have fallen all the way down if mom hadn't caught him first. She smoothed his fur and put him back up on the top level.
Skeezix might have been young, but he was smart. Since the ladder was slippery he had an idea. He put down his front paws and then lay on the ladder. Slowly he wiggled until he stared sliding and slid his way down to the second level.
"Well," said mom, "that's one way to do it."
Skeezix wasn't paying much attention. He was trying to figure out how he would get down the last ladder. This one was wood and not as smooth as the first one. He looked at it and then at the bottom of the cage. Finally, he decided to just jump down. His jump looked more like a half jump, half fall. H wasn't too good with his back feet yet and they just seemedd to fall down.
Meanwhile, Nippy was being very cautious of Skeezix. She had seen Fizzy folloiwing him around all day and even wrestle with him, but she still wasn't sure. A new ferret might be trouble. She was civil to him, but not overly friendly just yet.
Skeezix was having a grand time. Fizzy pounced him and they were wrestling around and dooking. While Fizzy hopped gracefully, Skeezix more or less hopped with the front legs and bounded with the back legs making him look like he was clumsy. Even though Skeezix was stonger and bigger, Fizzy pounced him several times and got him into a headlock. She was faster and better with her feet. Skeezix just couldn't make his feet do what he wanted them to do.
He still wondered why Nippy didn't play with him, so he asked Fizzy.
"Does Nippy not like me or something?"
"Oh, she's just afraid of you." Fizzy pounced him agian. "You see, she is the top ferret here and I think she thinks you might try to push us around." Fizzy had him in another headlock. "But I don't think you will since you can't even catch me and she's just as fast. Besides its kind of hard to push someone around that has you in a headlock!" Fizzy let go and ran off dooking. Skeezix shrugged and took off after her. At least she played with him.
Nippy watched Skeezix very closely for the next few days. She tried to stay away from him in case he got it in his head to be a bully with her. The more she watched, however, the more she realized that he was just a big baby. He couldn't get onto the bed and rummage through the covers with them. His claws hadn't grown out enough to grip very well. He couldn't jump well either. He was nothing more than a playful, blundering baby ferret.
She decided to go make friends with him. After all, he was only a few months old and she was nearly two years. She was more mature than he was and besides, if Fizzy could knock him down, so could she.
Skeezix was busy sniffing around the bed. He didn't know anyone was behind him. Nippy thought this was a great time to make friends by getting into a playful wrestle. She charged up behind him and pounced.
"Gotcha!" Her cry of triumph startled him.
"I didn't think you would ever play with me." Skeezix was confused, but happy, "I thought you didn't like me."
"I said I didn't know if I liked you. I decided that you're okay for a boy." With that she tugged on his ears.
Skeezix was twisting and squirming under her. He was trying to switch things around. "I'm glad you like me," he said. "I liked you all along. I was just so happy to have others to play with me."
He and Nippy were wrestling and dooking and chasing each other around the room. Fizzy got caught in the crossfire.
"Hey you two!" She tried to duck out of the way when Skeezix pounced Nippy. "Are you playing nice with each other?" They didn't answer her. Instead, they both pounced her.
Laughing, she said, "I guess that means yes!"
Mom and dad had been worried about how Nippy was accepting Skeezix. But watching the three of them playing together and chase each other, they knew that were looking at three very happy ferrets. Skeezix seemed to be the happiest of them all. He had finally found a home.
