I hope you (and your ferrets, of course!) all had a wonderful Christmas and I really do hope that this coming year will bring only happiness, peace, prosperity and good health to everyone.

I must say that reading the news makes me want to climb into bed and throw the covers over my head in despair but then one or all of the ferrets come up and and start doing their silly weasel wardance on the blanket and I just crack up.

That’s what I absolutely adore about having ferrets

Some of you might remember that I made a dig box for my guys a few years ago which was a mega fail. I’d got a bag of aquarium gravel and filled one of our grandkids’ toy boxes with it. I honestly thought that the ferrets would love it, as they were always scratching around inside the furniture.

Well … they jumped into the box, they had a teensy scrabble around and that was that. No more interest at all I left the box there for a couple of days and finally admitted defeat.

I get a lot of emails from new and old-time ferret owners at my site asking me various questions about their ferrets, mainly asking for advice on what to do when their ferret is sick or asking questions about breeding.

Then a couple of years ago I read about Ferret Health Advancement at MSU.  Dr Matti Kiupel was doing a lot of research in a number of ferret illnesses, like coronaviruses, rotaviruses & coccidiosis. He’s also working with David Wilson researching the prognostication and carcinogenesis of adrenal cortical neoplasms. But, of course, with all things, money is necessary to further the research for these diseases so the department also has a page for donations.

Life is never dull when you have a ferret (or six) in the house

K-Mart have a toy sale on and I saw some interesting things to get for the kidlets (grandchildren). We already had an Ikea kitchen unit for the littlies and I had also found some supermarket-type boxes, a cash register and other things so that when they came around, we’d pretend to cook or to shop.

Dash, before his operation …

and Dash’s shaved area after his castration …

And the lovely Kimiko before going to the vet …

and my baby’s shaved belly after being spayed …

When I dropped the little ones off in the morning, I was told to pick them up at 4pm unless someone called me to ask me to come at a different time, so I duly arrived at the vet’s surgery at 4 and told a new vet nurse I was here to pick up my ferrets.