For the past few weeks I have been hit with a mild case of the wuzzies. Every time I had to venture into Petco I’d go sneak a peek at the ferrets. Ok, it was longer than a peek and I was hardly sneaking.

Late last week I located a local ferret shelter that was active and had some ferrets up for adoption. After much hemming and hawing (the majority on my part) my wife and I headed down to take a look and pick out a ferret.

The woman who runs the shelter, Donna, had picked out a few potentials for us knowing that we were already ferret owners. First were two single boys. A silver named Chesterton and a sable who’s name I didn’t catch. Both were big boys, around 2 years old and mellow. Probably tuckered out for the night. In the cage with them were two girls, Xena and Xara. Both are blazes, or pandas, can’t quite tell which yet. Cute as can be and quite active. Xara was described as a trouble-maker with Xena being a tad more mellow. They were one of the bonded pairs that Donna would not split up.

My wife, who had said she only wanted one as we wanted to stick with a 3 ferret limit, suggested the girls. They were a tad younger and girls are easier to handle when it comes to illnesses later in life. On the other hand I was drawn to Chesterton because he was a beautiful silver and reminded me much of Samson. The choice was up to me.

In the end I picked Xena and Xara. Not because I wanted two (I would have happily walked out with 5 which is why my wife was riding herd on me) but because in the end Chesterton did remind me of Samson. I didn’t want to replace Sammie. No ferret can replace Sammie. It wouldn’t have been fair to Samson’s memory or to Chesterton to pick him based on his resemblance to Samson.

So here’s the best first-day picture I could get of the new girls. Xena’s the one on the ramp. Xara’s the blurry one to the right. Honestly, this was the clearest picture of her because she just wouldn’t stop moving for 2 seconds. Oh, and Fex’s nose at the bottom of the frame. He spent a good hour just watching them as they settled into the bottom of the cage.