Zoé

April 2000 ~ Dec. 28, 2003

Zoé, our original zferret girl, has died. I found her this afternoon, in her favorite hammock. It looked like she died in her sleep, so we can only hope she went peacefully. I'm pretty sure she's been sick for the past month or so, but the fact she keep rallying gave me hope. She was a good, playful girl who loved to chase the cat, and held her own against the dog (she's the one that made Roscoe afraid to play with the ferrets). Out of the four, I think Zoé had the sweetest temperament. She's the one who'd always attack Tom, or instigate play fights with the cat.

Here's the piece I wrote about her on the now-dead zferrets.com

Zoé is one of our original ferrets. She's the one we saw at the pet store and knew we had to have. Since she was older than the other ferret kits,we got a discount on her. The only thing was, we had to takeher sister, too. So we did.

We brought Zoé, and her sister, Zima, home with us in July 2002 shortly after we arrived in Boise. Both of them are from Marshall Farms (largest commercial breeder in the U.S.) and were 4 or 5 months old when we got them. The girls proved very curious about their new home.

One day, when we got home from work, we couldn't find the ferrets. The cage was open, but we knew we had closed it. There were ferret droppings in one of the corners. Since we hadn't moved our belongings into the house yet, there was no place for them to hide. Except one. You know that drawer under the oven, the one where you can store your pots and pans? That's where we found them, sleeping and blissfully unaware.

It was some time before we discovered the girls couldn't hear us… it was a sad realization. After doing some research online, we determined the girls suffered from Waardenburg's syndrome. It's a condition that has been brought about through the popularity of breeding dark-eyed white, marked white, panda, and blaze ferrets like the girls. Blaze ferrets, along with those with panda markings, are the two most common breeds to have deafness. Zoé and Zima are typical blazes with a stripe down the middle of the head and ruby red eyes. Now we knew why the girls didn't respond when we shook the treat container, or vacuumed.

But their “condition” hasn't been a hindrance. The girls don't know life any other way, and as a result are quite fearless. Zoé is the resident stunt ferret, wrestling with Tom, taking on Cassie, who outweighs her by 10 pounds, and biting any wayward toes that pass by. She's a sweet, sweet girl. She's named after Zoey, the special needs kitty that belonged to our good friend Charlotte. Zoey, who was our god kitten, died in 1999.