February 23 , 2009
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PHOTO BY RANDY HOEFT/THE SUNJACQUIE RODGERS holds up one of her two best buddies, Butters the ferret at her home in Yuma. |
By JOHN VAUGHN / The Sun
Yuma Sun
YUMA, Ariz. (AP) -- Dusty Butters never bit before.
That thought crossed Jacquie Rodgers' mind one
night recently after she was awakened by her 8-month-old male ferret
chomping down on her toe and on her index finger.
What Dusty Butters - or Butters for short - was
actually doing, Rodgers says now, was coming to the rescue of an owner
he thought was in distress.
The Yuma woman, restricted to her bed because of
a medical condition, had fallen asleep with her and her husband's newly
acquired Chihuahua puppy likewise asleep in the crook of her arm. And
in her sleep, Rodgers had become
tangled in the bed's side railing. She figures Dusty Butters was biting her and pulling
on
her sleeping garb to rouse her before she fell to the floor - and
took the pup down with her.
A minute later, Butters was back asleep. "It was
like no big deal to him - problem solved."
Add another chapter to Rodgers' saga of ferret
adventures - or what owners of more traditional pets like dogs and
cats might call misadventures.
"There's always something going on their minds," said
Rodgers, who's owned five of them over the years. "They're the most
interesting pets I've ever had. They're fuzzy little people."
That could be explanation for why Dusty Butters
does things like pull the plug out of her bathtub or make off with
her TV remote control.
As health issues have restricted her to her bed
for extended periods, Rodgers said the antics of her ferrets have made
them her emotional pillars of support.
"My guys know my mood, and when I'm upset, they'll
turn themselves inside out to make (me) laugh," she said. "They're
everything for me."
But Rodgers found that for all their frivolity,
ferrets are independent and like their space. Then she got Kylie, a
female who was not only fun-loving but affectionate.
Rodgers recounted that when she went to bed at
night, Kylie would climb on her chest and go to sleep with her, chin
to chin.
Kylie died last year, and Rodgers and her husband
got Dusty Butters. That first night, he climbed up on top of her and
rested his chin next to hers, just the way Kylie used to do.
"As a general rule, ferrets are not cuddly pets,
but Butters came to me at a time when I needed a hug," she said.
But also like the ferrets before him, he can be
something of a cutup, she said. Indeed, his antics might make him the
subject of a funny pet tricks segment on late night TV talk shows.
Dusty Butters pushes and fetches a soccer ball.
If he thinks Rodgers has been sleeping too long, he'll lick her closed
eyelids to wake her up.
And if Dusty Butters thinks Rodgers is paying too
much attention to television and not enough to him, he'll hide her
remote control. He'll return it on demand, she says, but not without
a pout.
Rodgers isn't sure why he pulls the plug out of
the bathtub - unless, she ventures, he thinks she should shower more
and bathe less.
Today Dusty Butters shares the house with one other
ferret, 7-year-old Gilbert, and, of course, the young Chihuahua. Dusty
Butters has warmed up to the dog, Rodgers said, although the feeling
is not quite mutual.
That night when Rodgers was sliding through the
bed rail in her sleep, Dusty Butters came to the rescue more out of
concern for the puppy than her, she believes.
"He was watching out for the baby - or what we
call the baby," Rodgers said. "He was taking a stance for another animal.
I'd never seen that before."
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