When I was pregnant, Devon took over all poop-related ferret duties. The ferrets were housed in a multi-story cage in our bedroom and were let out occasionally to play and wreck havoc. When they were younger, we would play with them all the time, chase them around the room, rub their bellies, give kisses, and play ferret toss. The relationship with our ferrets changed as we were becoming parents and, over the past year since Claire was born, become almost non-existent. We, of course, provided food, water and shelter, but well, not much else. They came out to play, unsupervised, for a while then, lately, not often at all.

Over the winter holidays, the ferrets were kenneled at our vet’s office (as usual). When we returned we were notified of an "incident" with one of the ferrets. Apparently he was pleasuring himself and got caught up in a loose string from his blanket. In attempting to release himself, he fell off the platform and was hanging by his … thing. At the time we thought this was hysterical. The poor nurse was slowly trying to describe the situation and how the doctor was checking out the ferret’s "thing" daily to insure it wasn’t injured. I didn’t have the heart to tell the nurse that we’d caught him doing that before and we weren’t surprised that it got him in trouble.

However, the story wasn’t so funny once we returned home. After busily unpacking and getting our lives back in order at home, the ferrets weren’t let out much. A few days later, when they were playing, I noticed that the ferret in question was not using his back legs. After more investigation, Devon and I took him to the vet. After examining our pet, the doctor felt that there was nothing wrong, but we could pay for extra tests totaling hundreds of dollars if we wanted to be sure. We asked for another suggestion. They said, well, if those tests came back positive, we would put him on steriods. So, without testing, it was determined that steriods would be the best course of action.

It didn’t help. The poor guy lost control of his faculties. He tries to use his legs. He doesn’t seem to be in any pain. But he can’t pull himself up a ramp. And poop is everywhere. At first it was just him accidentally pooping or peeing in the wrong place. Then the others caught on… Four ferrets in a marking contest in a confined area. Not a pretty picture. Devon did a great job trying to keep on top of the mess, but with all of our other activities, it was not an easy quest.

Trying to make this work out for everyone involved, Devon and I asked people we knew if they would like to adopt the little guys. No takers. We tried moving them to other rooms and even the hallway. We changed the cage around to deter poopage. No luck. We knew that we were not being fair to them or ourselves. They needed a better home.

After months of seriously debating their future with us, we sent out a call for help to wvwuzzles@yahoogroups.com, a Yahoo! newsgroup started by the West Valley Wuzzles – http://www.wuzzles.com - that we have belonged to since the group was conceived. We received three replies from people hoping to adopt our business. One clearly outshined the others. After we decided "this was it", we replied, then waited. About 10 minutes. Then the phone rang and began talking to the very excited woman on the other line.

I, a skeptic at heart, kept providing more information and asking more questions because, clearly, this woman didn’t realize what she was getting in to. Boy was I wrong. She answered every question to my content. She still wanted them after getting the details about the ferret mentioned above. She and her family have five female ferrets in a very large cage and they wanted some male companionship. The woman mentioned that the ferrets play in a closed-in porch and that she makes bedding and hammocks for ferrets.

My anguish over this decision quickly melted into delight because the woman really seemed to understand. That’s it, she just got it. We made arrangements for the adoption and then began to collect all of the ferret’s stuff. Man, for four little creatures weighing about 14 pounds total, we had accumulated an entire 4-Runner full of accessories. Two cages, a two-tier cat scratchy house, food, bedding, medicine, tubes, water bottles, a litter box, a pet carrier, a ferret-sized hamster wheel, and more. Last night we loaded everything up and dropped them off.

We were welcomed at the door by the woman we spoke to on the phone, her husband, four kids, and their five ferrets. We immediately became a part of the family and went to the porch, where everyone could run around and play. It was a great time and it was evident that we had made the right choice. This was going to be a great family for our ferrets.

A half-hour later we were on our way to Baskin Robbins for a treat before bed. During the ride I tried to determine how I felt. Remorseful? No. Relieved? No. Just kind of mellow, like this was how it was meant to be.