| Yoyo |
| It was early February when it happened. It is a time of year when the weather in Tucson can be a bit variable, but the days are usually pleasantly warm while the nights are chilly. We had two ferrets at that time, Yoyo and Murphy, and they had full run of our home, much to the chagrin of our two dogs and two cats. While the cats could get up where it was difficult for the ferrets to climb, the dogs would give us that long suffering look that only dogs can give and endure being climbed on and romped over by our two resident thieves. Our dogs, Sandy and Mutley were really good sports, though, and sometimes the ferrets would even curl up with them for a bit when they were sleeping. Yoyo was our male ferret, a frosted sable who was deaf. A large ferret, he was a little over a year and a half old and had perfected the talent of finding peaceful out of the way places to sleep. That made it a bit challenging to find him since he had no idea if you were calling to him to come eat or play. His playmate, Murphy, was a little dark sable and bundle of energy of about a year who would be on the go, teasing the dogs and cats and generally getting into any mischief she could find. She really lived up to her name! She usually preferred to sleep with us. My husband, Don was working a shift where he would come home from work around eight in the evening. This evening was no exception. Since it was �garbage night� we of course made sure all garbage was out of the house into the big trash can that the city would pick up in the morning; so several trips that evening were made out the front door. We had played with all of our critters after Don got home and by the time he started taking the garbage out, both ferrets had gone to their favorite places to sleep�we thought. What we did not realize was that on one of Don�s last trips out to the garbage can he had company going out of the door. Yoyo was always a very quiet ferret and didn�t make any noise as he accompanied my husband out on one of the last garbage runs. We live in a subdivision where many of the homes are similar. It just so happened that the house across the street from ours is essentially identical �just a mirror image. In our home one of Yoyo�s favorite places to nap out was in the bathroom at the end of the hall. He would lie in the corner just about under and behind the throne and sometimes just under the shower curtain. When Yoyo followed Don out of the front door, he trotted across the street and it just so happened that one of the women who lived over there got home about the same time he wandered. In fact, the front door opened for him to just go right in. Little did Jenny realize she had company as she entered her home. Now Cathy, the other woman who lived there had just drawn a nice bubble bath to enjoy soaking away the trials of the day. She, too, did not realize that they had an unexpected visitor until she went in to take her bath and found, oh my, a strange animal of a kind she had never seen, making himself at home in his usual spot similar to his favorite one at home. She squeaked. She shrieked! She came running out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel gibbering about some strange animal that had suddenly taken up residence in her bathroom. Oh, help! Jenny it turned out was a ranger at one of the monument parks around Tucson. While she didn�t have much experience with ferrets she did recognize Yoyo for what he was and she knew that there was a club in Tucson that did rescues on wayward fuzzies. So she called in the experts and Ginny Childs of Ferret Friends of Tucson came to save the day (or night as it were). Ginny picked up Yoyo, left a card with how to contact her and took our fuzzy to spend the night someplace where ferrets were loved and understood. It wasn�t until the next morning that we realized our big guy was missing. We tore the house apart. We checked all over our yard and car port. Our hearts were in our mouths when we finally realized that our Yoyo was no where to be found. The next step was canvas the neighborhood. Surely someone had seen our wayward little one! Thank goodness Ginny had left her card with Jenny. She gave it to Don and we called immediately. Yes, Ginny had a ferret that was rescued in our neighborhood and yes he was as described by two panicky ferret owners. Yes we could come right over to make sure it was he. Oh! The relief! The hopeful relief�not completely daring to believe that this really would turn out to be our Yoyo. When we got to Ginny�s place, on the entirely opposite side of the city we felt like we needed to pinch ourselves. Could this possibly be so easy? It was Yoyo! And he looked as happy and friendly as usual and none the worse for his adventure. We were so thankful to find him and to find out that there was such a club as Ferret Friends of Tucson, that we joined the club on the spot. How could we not? An organization that not only educated people about the care and feeding of ferrets, but also did such great things as rescue these adorable creatures definitely deserved to be supported. Our family has been members ever since. And that is how we ended up becoming a rescue shelter ourselves, to help support the efforts of Ferret Friends of Tucson and try to promote the well-being of ferrets on the other side of town. If your town or city has such an organization, try to help them whenever you can. They provide a valuable service to ferret minded individuals and their favorite pets. It is often a thankless job and no one ever makes any money doing it. Even if you cannot give them money to help with vet bills and food and medicine, your support by giving old blankets, towels, t-shirts, sweatshirts and sweatpants can help. If you can give them the gift of time in the way of volunteering at the shelters, helping to clean cages or even entertaining the little darlings helps. Any supplies that you can help to provide is appreciated. Contact your local ferret club or rescue shelter and see what you can do to help. They will appreciate it. Dawn Glidden Head Ferret Slave at Hooked On Fuzzies www.geocities.com/hookedonfuzzies |
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