HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARCAS!

Mommy’s little Red-Eyed Demon Arcas (aka You’re Too Cute Shortie) turns 5 today, June 29.

[I know, horrible parent being so late with the birthday post.]

We love you, Bumble!

[Show as slideshow]

 

Today our littlest ferret turns FIVE!

(littlest in terms of size I mean)

Happy Birthday little ‘Nannerhead!

We love you

After a long winter and a very wet spring, Villain was looking a little rough. His partly shedded coat held enough dust (and other things I probably don’t want to know about) to add another 20 pounds or so to his usually svelte figure.

It was time for a bath. And as usual, I ended up on the short end of the deal .

Here’s Villain after being brushed but before his bath.

And here we are post- bath. I was smart this time. I wore shoes designed for playing in the water.

And finally, just Villain. All nice and (mostly) clean. I feel better all ready.

Ok, so there aren’t any other rhyming pets that fit with ferrets and parrots, sue me. I can’t be responsible for this outrageous oversight. Take it up with the taxonomy experts.

We had a guest at our house for a week, a blue front amazon parrot named Reggie. Now Reggie has lived in a house with cats and ferrets and dogs and prairie dogs and iguanas – not to mention small children. Not much phases her. Mostly she just keeps an eye out, fluffs her feathers and mutters a lot.

Arcas on the other hand FREAKS OUT when a new pile of dirty laundry shows up, so as you can imagine the appearance of a parrot nearly sent her off the deep end.

She nearly split her tiny little gourd when she realized there was an intruder in the living room.  She barreled down the steps, skid into the foyer, zipped into the living room and started randomly bouncing off the walls. For those of you who aren’t familiar with ferrets, this is a pretty standard procedure for my ferrets.  It was when she caught Reggie’s scent that she started making noises which clearly indicated her level of overstimulation was rapidly on the rise.  Pinpointing the new smell to the critter sitting on the end table, she decided that she had to get UP there. What she was able to ascertain was that to get to the intruder’s cage, she had to get ON the sofa. Easier said than done since Arcas’ vertical leap is about, oh say three inches.

Ferrets are nothing if not tenacious. Not that she had much of a plan once she got on the sofa.

   But being cute makes up for a host of sins and poor planning, which is pretty much any ferret’s saving grace. And Arcas is particularly good at this skill. She flashes that adorable little bib and cocks her head and  her oddly red eyes shine. And that’s pretty much where I mostly forget that she’s trying to make a tragically poor decision to leap three feet from my antique sofa to reach a parrot who could totally bite her little ferrety feet clean off.

In an odd flash of sane decision making (rare, ever so rare) Arcas, with some persuasion from yours truly, abandoned her plan to fling herself at the bird, heaved herself to the floor and careened under the grandfather clock. (The clock being a very favorite ferret safety spot for staging terror attacks on the unsuspecting felines.)

  What changed her mind is beyond me. No loud noises. No sudden moves by the bird, who just kept looking at Arcas and muttering. It takes a lot to knock Reggie out of her common study. At any rate,  I seriously doubt Arcas had a sudden realization that her plan – if indeed she had one – was not going to end well. Ferrets have no concept of consequences as far as I can tell and I’ve had years of experience sharing my house with them. Ultimately, I suspect that her tiny little ferret brain was suddenly distracted by a stray thought. Like how awesome some good Scottish Beer would taste. Continue Reading »