Oscar and Telly

Oscar and Telly are best friends. We brought them home back in June of 2005.

They had been dumped at a local pet store that sells all kinds of animals from foxes to fish. They were in a dirty, wire cage with nothing to sleep on, and only each other for comfort. They were hungry, dirty, smelly, and covered with mites. We were waiting for take-out food from the restaurant next-door when we stopped in and saw them. They were so sad and sweet that we took them right home. They are just the sweetest boys. We wondered why anyone would dump such sweet ferrets. It bothered me for years.

The amazing thing was that we found out that my son's close friend was the original owner. She was a little girl and was too young to be responsible for small animals, but her parents left them in the care of the children and like most children, they did not keep up with the care and cage cleaning. The parents got angry when the cage started to smell and took them to the local pet store and asked them to find them a new home.

The ferrets were in very poor condition, so as much as it upsets me when people surrender their pets, this was the best thing that ever happened to these guys, as they have a wonderful home and are very well loved here.

When we adopted Oscar and Telly, they told us that their original names were Romeo and Cocoa. They did not know their names, so we were free to change them. Our kids loved Sesame Street and we had a wonderful ferret named Grover and two others named Burt and Ernie, so it didn't take long to come up with Oscar and Telly for these guys. They really live up to their names, too. Oscar is a particularly stinky ferret, and he seems like the kind of guy that would enjoy living in a garbage can. Telly is a really timid little guy, similar to Telly Monster on Sesame Street. I like to call him Telly Monster because he is so sweet and gentle, so monster is a silly name for him.