do two ferrets & a human count as a carpool?

on wednesday night i picked up my new boys, two six month old ferrets. unfortunately their previous owner was unable to give them the play time & attention they needed because of work, so she made the tough decision to put a posting on craig's list & give up her boys. i'm sad for her, but it's rather fortunate for me. she had the ad up for the two boys, their cage, all the litter, bedding, supplies she had left for them. so tonight after i left erik at his place with his two new ferrets (jack & jill) he adopted from the woodbury humane society, i headed over to meet the guys & see if they would take to me.

the guys were sleeping when i got there, but they did let me handle them & were so sweet i said i'd love to be their new mom. so i headed home with two new ferrets in a pet carrier, their cage in the back seat of my saturn, & a bag with all their assorted accompaniments (food, litter, nail clippers, etc, etc). i felt so bad for them that first night, they were scared from the car ride, & then there were fireworks going off at the plymouth town hall when i got home, & then they were in a new place with two rats that were definitely giving them the evil eye. i'm not sure leif & anthony are too fond of their new brothers.

but, they've made a great adjustment already! they were in a pretty small cage for just one ferret, but really small for two. they were in the ferret starter cage, which isn't a bad cage at all, i just like to spoil my pets. & so last night after work i headed out to petsmart & got them a HUGE new cage. the damn thing is almost taller than me. but it's really ferret proof in that they really can't get out at all. it has four levels so they have plenty of room to play & for their toys & bedding. i also got a small animal "play pen" to help ferret proof my apartment. i can either hook it all together into a play pen or, the way i've been using it lately, is just as a gate to fence off my appliances so they can't get behind the stove & fridge.

yeah, four pets is a lot, but they're all little guys that can be confined to cages. it's not like i have four cats running around or four dogs or anything like that. but they do take time & care & love. which i am more than happy to give them. it also assures that i will NOT be working the insane 10-12 hour days that i have been lately. ferrets do need time out of their cage, around 3-4 hours a day, so i need to make sure i'm home & around to let them roam my place & play.

& here are some pics! the names they had were guero & travieso (blonde & mischievous in spanish). the names didn't mean much to me so i renamed them butch cassidy & the sundance kid, cassidy & sundance for short. cassidy is the one with the dark tail & sundance is the one that has the white on the tip of his tail.