As many of you are now aware, I got some pets on the weekend. I decided to do this a bit impulsively and now I am stewing a bit about this decision. I am now the proud and leery owner of two female ferrets. Names pending and recommendations welcome. So what drove me to such a decision? While I was on vacation, I got the chance to spend time with a lot of animals. On Koh Toh Island, we actually had two cats at our beach house, Mr. Stripes and KT. KT was expecting kittens and Mr. Stripes got fixed. Everyday we fed them tins of sardines in tomato sauce on the balcony and every night they sat on our laps and purred while we played cards. When I returned home, I realized that I missed my pets very much. On Saturday morning, I learned that my favourite cat, Tike, back home had been put to sleep due to illness. It was a difficult decision that Mom had to make and I know she didn’t want to do it. At any rate, I was extremely sad about this. He was a wonderful pet to our family and had loads of character. He was a friendly, frisky, bitey orange cat who was approximately the size of a small dog. I was heart broken to learn that I would never see him again. SO – I was checking my email that same morning and I saw an ad on the One List, the JET communication website. This ad seemed to be directed at me personally: “Are you lonely? Do you want a pet?”. It took about two seconds for me to answer the ad. The owners drove them down from Nagano city and met me and Tom H at the station. Ferrets changed hands and we were off. There is a small brown one and a larger dumber cream coloured one. So now they live in my living room. They are litter trained which is nice. They require a great deal of exercise so they need to be let out for a couple of hours everyday. I kept them contained to the living room until last night when I let them have the run of the first floor with the exception of the bathroom. They got into EVERYTHING! They stole my things and move stuff around. They can get under anything and they can climb my very steep stairs. I thought I had ferret proofed and cleaned everything but they found things I didn’t know I had and were covered in lint and dust in about five minutes. Sigh. I don’t know what to do with them really. I feel overwhelmed by them. I will have to get a routine figured out so that we can share my little house without me wringing their little necks. They are quiet at night which is a bonus and they aren’t too terribly smelly although I am taking constant steps to ensure that. They are cuddly which I wouldn’t have imagined. They will come and sit in my lap and they often follow me around. I tried to take some pictures but they are very fast. I have many pictures of tails and bites of them sticking out from places. These are the best shots I could get so far. I do like them and I am not going to get rid of them or anything but I need to learn a bit more about them. Also I need to name them soon so I can stop shouting out “Ferret! Don’t touch that!”. Well, all in due time.
I am a little home sick these days but I think that’s common because other JETs have said the same thing. It is time to go out and get active to take my mind off of it. I know I have visitors coming in two months and time really does fly here. Can’t wait to see you Lauren and Karen! Wish me luck till then.