My Rules For Twitter Sparring

What’s Twitter Sparring?  That’s when you hop on twitter, do a search, and start replying to random people posting stupid stuff.  Something I’ve been doing lately out of boredom and wanting to ruffle people’s feathers when it came to their silly notions.  However, to keep it from being stalking or attacking I developed 4 rules for Twitter Sparring.

1. Twitter is public.  Comment in public, expect the public to respond.
2. Search for a specific term you want to combat negativity about.  For example, my term du jour is “Atheist”.
3. Only reply to original posts, not retweets.
4. Reply only in public, don’t DM, don’t take it private.  This is the practical extension of #1.

What this means that if someone posts “Atheists are all devil worshipers” in a public tweet I feel it’s ok to reply publicly and challenge that notion.  This means I’m not attacking people for their religious beliefs, I am offering rebuttals to what people are claiming about another group they most often know little to nothing about.

The odd thing is that so far my most often used argument is actually against atheists who are mistaken on the nature of agnostic and atheist and how they relate to one another.  Fooie.

(Thanks @GoSkinnyBitches for providing the impetus to actually write down the rules.)

First Night Home For… uhmmm….

Well, it has been almost a year since we lost Fex.  We decided it was time to return our business to three ferrets.  After checking with the local shelter we decided to go with a kit this time.  So tonight we headed over to Petco, played with a couple of kits and ended up bringing home the largest of the bunch.

We were told he’s the last of the previous batch and is a few months older than the other kits.  It shows!  He was a rambunctious terror in the cage, constantly tackling the other kits and gnawing on ears or scruffs or anything else that came close.  He wanted to play!  Apparently he was also adopted once and returned in short order, no reason given as to why.  But he was gentle with the other kits; never made them squeak.  When I held him he was kind of mellow and not chompy at all.

His First Night Home

On the ride home he sat in my arms.  So mellow it was unreal.  He was content to just watch the world go by.  I don’t think we’ve had a ferret sit that still since Samson.

At home he got introduced to, and play with, Daisy, Xena and Xara.  So far, so good.  He didn’t get into any huge fights with the girls.

Now onto the hard part, picking out a name.  Eadie’s leaning towards Xander to keep the X names going.   I had originally suggested Xerxes a few days ago as a joke.  But we’ll see.  Right now he’s home, he’s tuckered out and he’s sleeping.  That’s good enough for the first night.

Should I Adopt A Ferret?

This gets asked all the time on Reddit’s Ferret sub.  I type out basically the same answer every time.

As with anyone who asks here my standard response is this: Like any pet, you should be ready to care for a ferret for the rest of it’s life. The minimum for a ferret means a couple of hours play time, morning and night, fresh food, water and litter whenever they get low. However, unlike cats or dogs ferrets are very stoic when it comes to their environment. At least, that has been my experience with my ferrets over the past 6 years.

My cat’s food dish is empty, she meows at me to fill it. My dog needs to go potty, she barks at me to let her out. My ferrets’ litter is full, their water bottle is empty, their food dish is empty, they are silent.

This means you cannot trust them to let you know when they need attention. You simply must get into the routine of checking their living space morning and night, every day, for the next 5-7 (hopefully more) years.

Mind you, that’s the minimum they need. So before adopting a ferret ask yourself if you’re willing to devote yourself to caring for that pet in that manner for the next several years. If the answer is not an honest yes, please reconsider your choice and/or hold off until that answer changes.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my ferrets. I think they are wonderful pets and I think many more people could find joy in having ferrets in their life. But I have had the unfortunate need to rescue 2 ferrets from a private home, and adopted 2 more from an overloaded shelter who, at the time, had over 40 ferrets. I don’t want people to misunderstand what they are getting into with a ferret and have any more added to the rolls of local ferret shelters.