A week later, I get a call from the shelter mom. She tells me that she took in a ferret three days earlier and had the strongest urge to call me immediately. She said that she kept pushing this urge back and reminded herself that I had just adopted Simon. Well, she said she was standing at the sink, doing dishes and she looked down at this ferret. She said he was staring at her and she heard in her head, "I need to be with Phyllis". She is a very practical woman who has little belief in the supernatural or religious occurances. However, she said she had to call me to say, "Phyllis, you are not going to believe this, but you need to see this ferret I just got in!"

I told her about my prayer and that I was not surprised by her phone call, that I had been almost expecting it. I went the next night to see this little man and one look into his eyes told me that he was a Gift from the Creator. He was the answer to my prayer!

I will be picking him up next week and I will call him Gabriel - God's most beloved angel and messenger!

Phyllis M. Spy

In my opinion and from what I heard about the surrender experience with Gabriel, I feel that he was a victim of mental abuse. When I first brought him home from the shelter, he would not come out of his sleep sack when I came home at night from work. I would have to reach in and take him out for his playtime. He would go around the house sniffing a various places and then hide in a plastic bag for 15 minutes or so and finally retreat back to his sleep sack. Once back in his cage, he would amuse himself with a little plastic ball with a bell in it, which he would hold in his paws and play with. He was afraid of everything! He would go up to something new, like a shoe laying on the floor, and start to play with it, suddenly stop and look around like he expected someone to yell at him for playing with the shoe. This went on for about a week or so with short visits with Simon, who he seemed to be fairly comfortable with. After almost two weeks of these play sessions with Simon, I decided that Simon was the one to teach Gabriel how to be a ferret again. So, I put them in a cage together, supervised them for a weekend while I was home and decided that this was a good choice for both of them. They were both recent adoptees and relatively close in age - under 1 1/2 years old. Simon and Gabriel were complete opposites in every way. Simon was full of spunk and energy, loved tipping over his food dish, making a mess of his cage and pooping anywhere in the litter pan. Gabriel, on the other hand, was very quiet and shy, kept his cage very neat and always pooped in the same corner of his litter pan. It was like having the Odd Couple in ferret suits. Well, as I suspected, they spent the next few weeks teaching each other - Simon learned to poop in the same corner of the litter pan and Gabriel learned how to share his cage with a best friend.

Now after several months, Gabriel has grown in confidence and trust. He has since intergrated into the big cage with the four older ferrets. He is one of the first ones out for playtime and one of the last ones to climb into the dresser drawer for the night. He has become such a little terror that he jumps and wrestles with any ferret that comes near him. He war dances, dooks and begs for treats. He sits up for his Laxatone and gives big kisses to anyone that he meets. He is proof that love, patience and an understanding of his ferret needs can do for a ferret that has gone through mental abuse and neglect. This new Gabriel is the one I am trying so desperately to capture in a picture as it is truly a wonderful thing to see.

When a ferret smiles at you, it is the most wonderful gift a ferret mommy can receive.

Phyllis M. Spy
Massachusetts Ferret Friends, Inc.