Our BABIES!
We are the guardians of three cats: Selina, Sibley and Simon, and four ferrets: Tasha, Nicole, Morrie and Maxwell. Their stories, with illustrations, are told here.
In late 1992, Jen went to the Humane Society intending to adopt the cat next in line to be put down, regardless of whatever health or emotional problems she might have. She was very lucky to end up with Selina who is basically a lover cat, although she was a bit of a rascal when she was younger and definitely suffers from the "Queen Cat" syndrome. She certainly does not hesitate to assert herself with our other cats, which is no small feat, considering Simon is seven years younger and outweighs her by about four pounds. Simon also has twice as many claws as Selina does.
Jen met Sibley in a bar in 1994. Sibley was just a kitten then, and stayed alive on the scraps the bar owners gave her every morning. Although Jen doesn't often bring home strangers from a bar, she made an exception in Sibley's case. We expect that her early life on the street contributed to the oversensitivity inherent to Tortoise Shells, and she only accepts love and affection on her own terms. Her two favorite places are window sills and laundry baskets full of clean laundry. Unfortunately, she also suffers from bulimia, which we think is a result of her nervous condition, but we've been fortunate enough never to have to wash the same laundry twice due to Sibley. (Update, 5/10/00: Now we have.)
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Jen had already adopted Selina and Sibley before Dave entered the picture, and we wanted to get some pets which truly belong to both of us. So a week before Thanksgiving, 1998, we went out and bought Tasha and Nicole. Tasha is a very quiet, demure sable ferret, who is always on the lookout for a way to escape the room we've set up for the ferrets in the basement. She can go from zero to 60 faster than you would think, especially if you leave the door open just a moment longer than necessary. In fact, she has recently discovered that the cage door is merely a suggestion that she should stay put, rather than an actual barrier.
Nicole is
our only albino ferret, and sadly not the brightest sprite in the business. She is
very devoted to her many stuffed mice, however, which leads us to believe that she'd
be an excellent mother if only she could reproduce. She even brings food pellets to
her "babies", and has also been seen placing them in the litter box. This may be an
attempt to toilet-train the stuffed animals, but considering that Nicole is only just
barely toilet-trained herself, we see it as a case of the blind leading the blind.
We were so pleased with Tasha and Nicole that in February 1999, we couldn't resist picking up
two more ferrets, Toby and Morrie. Well, Dave couldn't resist Toby, and Jen insists
on acquiring pets in pairs whenever possible. Morrie, our other sable, is a very enthusistic
but very clumsy ferret (we call him "galumphy") --- he tends to fall off the bed a lot.
Toby, a chocolate ferret, unfortunately came down with liver cancer, and traveled across the
Rainbow Road in April 2002. We've written up some memories of her here.
Morrie followed Toby down the Rainbow Road in February 2003.
The newest feline addition to our family is a very playful, very friendly male Tabby cat. Jen and Dave still can't agree on a name for him. Dave prefers "Brutus" and Jen flatly insists that his name is "Simon" (we adopted him at the condominiums where Jen's mother's family --- the Simons --- were holding their 1999 reunion), but recently we've started using other names for him. He's pretty much doubled in size since we adopted him, which has caused Dave to start referring to him as "Mr. Bulky." Dave's also called him a few other names, but those aren't appropriate for a family-oriented web site.
One thing is for sure: Simon has managed to gain the confidence and trust of all of our other animals, except for Sibley, whom Simon uses for hunting practice. And Sibley doesn't trust anyone else anyway.
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In March of 2000, we acquired two more ferrets from the Kozy Kritters ferret shelter north of the Twin Cities. Maxwell and Teddy needed more personal attention to get them more comfortable with people. Maxwell is a champagne ferret and Teddy is a cinnamon ferret. After a couple of weeks of Nicole asserting her dominance by dragging Teddy around the room, things finally settled down and everyone got along. Maxwell is pretty lazy and would be happy sleeping through the day, but once we drag him out of bed, he is active. Teddy unfortunately took his own trip over the Rainbow Road in early September 2002.
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