I was watching and
playing with my baby, Milo, last night and couldn’t help but notice some of the
habits he has picked up. I think for the first time I thought about what our
ferrets teach each other. It gave me a smile. Jude, a sweet possum faced boy
recently who recently passed away, was Milos mentor. When Milo first came, Jude
disciplined him and taught him to behave. Jude did a very good job. Whenever
Milo played too rough with an older ferret or smaller ferret, Jude jumped in
and set him straight. He taught him the rules and order of the business. I
noticed some other things Jude taught him, more on the personal trait side of
things. Jude was a flipflop thief. All flipflops belonged to Jude and in Jude’s
stash. He gathered them daily from the mud room and took them to a drawer in
the kitchen. He lugged them to the back of the drawer and then up and over so
they were behind it. I had noticed that Milo would on occasion go on these
round ups with him. Milo would help him with the particular heavy ones that I
often wore when doing the gardening. The two would work it through the kitty door
(that went out to the mud room) with such coordination that it amazed me. They
used the same teamwork to get it into and behind the drawer. I guess it was fun
for Milo to be on the hunting spree with Jude, because after Jude passed the
flipflop snatching stopped. That is until a week ago. Milo has set up his own
stashing spot. To my joy it is much easier to get to….. Its under the dining
table.
Jude also had this
habit of grabbing onto the twist crocks and trying to shake or pull them off.
He always made such a racket doing this. Im not sure what his obsession was
with those things. I was in the hallway putting away some towels in the linen
closet and I suddenly heard this noise…so familiar...and so loud. Without
thinking I walked into the ferret room to tell Jude to stop it and there was
Milo….trying to shake the twist crock off its base. My eyes welled up.
Milo was with Jude
for about 5 months. In that time they were good buddies. Milo often slept with
Jude and comforted him in his final days. It makes me happy to know Jude passed
along a piece of himself….
