My ex-husband and I were reminiscing recently about some of the many pets we shared throughout the years and he reminded me of the first time my Grandmother met Major Burns, our first ferret. I thought I would share the story with you.
A month or so after my ex-husband and I moved into our first home (I will date myself by telling you this was in 1986) we invited my grandmother over for dinner. Grandma C was a sweet woman who never had an unkind word to say about anyone. She was a petite little thing who always wore dresses or skirt suits. I NEVER saw her in pants, and she never raised her voice that I can remember.
It was a big deal for me that my grandmother was coming to my house for the first time and that I was cooking her dinner. This was the woman who taught me not only how to cook, but to appreciate the value of brining together your family with a meal.
As we were young and this was our first house, we didn’t yet have a great deal of furniture, so I planned to serve dinner around the coffee table.
When grandma got to the house I introduced her to our new cat, Jessica and our Lab puppy Sebastian. It did not occur to me to introduce her to the ferret, who lived in our spare bedroom. I assumed he was secured in his cage. That was a mistake. Gram was sitting on the couch, eating over the coffee table, which was not a usual occurance for this proper woman by any means but she was a good sport about it, when all of a sudden I see Major Burns pop his head out from behind a couch cushion. I was just about to say something when my grandmother stood up to go to the kitchen so I kept my mouth shut, firguring I could scoop up the ferret when she left the room and make a proper introduction. Major Burns had other ideas. He wriggled himself all the way behind the couch and then scurried out of the room. Gram came back, sat down and continued to eat. At this point I wasn’t sure what to do about the ferret, but I figured he probably went back to his room and climbed back into his cage . I told Dale that I needed some help in the kitchen with something and as soon as we were out of ear shot I told him to find the thing before we scared the heck out of my grandmother. Too late. I heard my soft-spoken grandmother say “Oh Dear” and I just knew what that meant. I rushed back to the living room and saw Gram bent over, looking between her knees under the hem of her skirt trying to see under the couch. Seeing my 80-something year old granmother in this position was like something out of the twilight zone for me.
Bless her heart she simply looked back up at me and calmly said “I think you may want to move, this house has rats.”
We explained that this was not a rat, found Major Burns under the couch and made a formal introduction. To my complete surpirse my Gram actually held the ferret in her lap and petted him for while. Then she went right on eating her dinner.
I guess the moral of this story is, introduce your guests to ALL the pets you have when they visit. Not everyone would have been as calm as Grandma C was.
Tags: ferrets, pets, Whales & Friends
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