Well it didn’t take us long to feel the need to fill the void caused by Bonnie’s absence.

Alexia, our eldest, got her dog through S.A.F.E. (Saving Animals From Euthanasia) and she told us to check the PetRescue website to find a dog to share our home. This we did, and we fell in love with a 7.5 month old Ridgeback X pup called Farrell who was advertised there.

Philip spoke to Farrell’s carer and went to see him, then organised for Farrell to come to our house so that we could be vetted and also to see how he’d go with the ferrets.

That was a week ago yesterday. The carer, called Lisa, came with another couple and the dog – we greeted them outside and then opened the front door to allow them to come in.

Farrell crossed the threshold and promptly dropped down on his haunches and his little body started to quiver from the smells of the ferrets! It was quite incredible to see him trembling at the front door and I confess I was just a little worried that perhaps the sight of the ferrets would set him racing off to snatch one up for lunch.

We all went outside to sit on the patio. I brought Muis out and Farrell sniffed her bottom and seemed very interested but didn’t show any sign of wanting to eat her. This was a positive thing :)

Then we brought Kahlua out and he sniffed her, then we trouped inside and I got Seamus out from our bedroom. He took a sniff of Farrell and ran under the couch but when I brought Angus out, he practically bit Farrell’s nose as he lunged at him. Eeek! This was NOT a positive thing :(

Anyway, both Philip and I thought the puppy was gorgeous so we were told to think about him during the weekend and to ring Lisa up on Monday and say yay or nay. However, they had the right to refuse our offer if they didn’t think we would be a good home for the dog. We thought this was fair enough.

Philip rang Lisa first thing on Monday and she seemed happy with us as prospective “parents” and said she’d bring the dog around on Wednesday afternoon. This she did, and we thought we wouldn’t overwhelm the poor pup with a new house, plus the madness of four ferrets charging around so for the first two days, I kept them separate, apart from the occasional sniff of Muis’s or Kahlua’s backside.

I wanted him to get to know all the smells and feel that this was his home before allowing all the ferrets to run around.

I also decided that he should be called Zac instead of Farrell. Somehow the name seemed to suit him perfectly and we thought he’d be young enough to accept the name change.

Yesterday morning I declared it time to introduce him to the whole gang. Before doing that, we wiped some Dimethyl Phthalate Bitterant on his paws, tail and ears. This bitterant is something that vets put on dogs’/cats’ stitches after operations to keep them from pulling them out – it’s a bitter tasting liquid and it was the stuff I got for Angus when the girls were picking on him when he was a kit. Yukky tasting and not nice but perfectly safe.

So … we opened our bedroom door and watched.

Muis waddled out and she seemed to be quite interested in sniffing him but that was all – she just wanted to sniff and when he put his nose down to her, she licked it. Why don’t I have my camera around for those occasions! It was priceless!

Anyway, Seamus and Angus then came out and noticed him and, boy, they were both not impressed to find a strange animal in their house and proceeded to chase poor Zac around the house. I saw Angus try to bite Zac on his paw and he shook his head when he tasted the bitterant, so at least that was working!

After about 5-10 minutes of the boys chasing Zac, I put them back in the bedroom with the girls. I thought it best that the introduction went slowly so that they could get used to each other in time.

In the afternoon I let them all out again and this time the boys’ interest in Zac was more how to annoy him by crawling inside the cover of his bed rather than trying to attack him. As you can see from the video below, Angus really was annoying! :-D

This morning when I let the ferrets out, the boys starting chasing Zac but I noticed it was more playful than aggressive and I was very pleased at how the whole thing was going. I knew that the ice had been broken and it wouldn’t take long for them to become friends.

The bedroom door has been open the whole day – the ferrets wander around the house as they please and Zac sniffs the girls and chases Angus!

Phew! It looks like Zac’s presence has been accepted by all the ferrets and I reckon they’re going to be fast friends in no time :)

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