Meet Ginger and Harriet

     The girls wanted a guinea pig from Santa for Christmas.  I've heard about it for months now.  "We're asking Santa for a guinea pig!"  "Yeah, and when Santa brings us our guinea pig, we're gonna play with him all the time."  "Maybe we can play with our guinea pig outside!"  On and on... I wasn't opposed to a guinea pig.  I was prepared to arrange for one to be a part of our lives.

     I had a guinea pig about 14 years ago... his name was Big Al.  A colleague of mine gave him to me.  Her husband had given Big Al to her as a wedding gift.  As it turned out, my colleague was deathly allergic to Big Al's fur.  I'm well aware of the fact that some people are super allergic to guinea pigs... it has something to do with their fur and their dander.  Any how, I was prepared to welcome a guinea pig into my life.  I bounced the idea off of Karl.  He agreed it would be great for the kids.  One day during our discussion he said "Yes, a guinea pig... or a ferret..."  I looked at him.  There was a twinkle in his eye and a little smirk on his face.  I asked him if he was serious and he asked me why not.  I toyed around with the idea for a few days.

     After a little looking around (yes, there were plenty of baby ferrets waiting to be purchased at Petco, but I had other things in mind) I found two sisters for sale.  I called the number and asked a few questions.  The woman was moving to North Carolina, and she had way too many pets.  She had to get rid of some.  Karl and I drove up to Waterbury to see if the ferrets would be a good match for my daughters.  An Australian Shepherd greeted us at the door.  We went upstairs.  Four kittens darted around our feet.  Two ferrets made 7 pets.  The woman also mentioned that she had two hamsters and a whole bunch of baby hamsters in her bedroom!  Yikes!  Too many pets.  We met the ferrets and LOVED them.  They would be perfect for my daughters.  We adopted them.

     Christmas morning had arrived.  The girls ran downstairs and rubbed their eyes.  A four foot tall cage stood to the right of the Christmas tree... it was covered by a sheet.  The girls squealed with delight.  They thought they had a guinea pig.  The sheet was removed, and upon closer inspection, the girls realized that Santa had brought them a ferret... no wait!  TWO ferrets! 

     The ferrets were named... Harriet - after Harriet The Spy and Ginger (because Bandit isn't a girl's name... don't' try and follow the logic... there isn't any!)  Harriet is the one with the light mask and Ginger is the one with the dark mask.  The ferrets, just like my girls, are sisters.  Tonight as each girl lay on a couch with her ferret fast asleep on her chest, I chuckled to myself.  There couldn't be a better match.