WE BRING YOU a tale of one plucky ferret, and his ongoing quest to find his way home.
Over to Stoneybatter resident Ciaran Murray. The action starts on the sunny Saturday just past…
So there I was, minding my own business – boozing and reading a novel on sunny Halliday Square – when I heard the neighbours exclaiming about some kind of wild animal meandering down the pavement and into an open front door.
The owner ejected him sharpish, and I saw what I presumed to be a ferret trotting up Oxmantown Road. I approached the sandy-coloured little weasel, in my bare feet. Call it foolish or dutch courage, but I picked him up and he didn’t bite me – he licked my arm. That’s when I decided he was definitely someone’s lost pet.
(Ciaran’s housemate Josie christened the ferret ‘Gary’. A reference to Gary the Unicorn, from The Simpsons)
We kept him in a little cardboard box with shredded newspaper and a towel. I fed him rashers. He was really really smelly. Our dog barked nonstop at him. He didn’t give a shit. That was our Gary.
He was always trying to get inside the house. I tried to loop the dog’s leash around his middle to take him for a stroll around Halliday (Square), but he wriggled out and legged it back in the front door.
On Sunday night, a cat was prowling about on our garden wall, but I went out and scared it away. I feared for its safety, as Gary was armed with the meanest set of fangs you ever did see.
But he never bit us – in fact, he kept licking my toes and legs when I went out to visit him.
My housemate Nathaniel really wanted to keep him, but the stench and the din from the agitated dog became too much.
I brought him to Cara Vet on the North Circular Road on Monday. He went f**king mad in the box en route. Old women asked what was in the box, and recoiled when I told them.
The vet said the DSPCA would pick him up this morning, where he would get to hang out with a bunch of his fellow ferrets.
Ciaran told DailyEdge.ie that local people shared his Facebook post about Gary, and a few even offered to foster him, but the owner never came forward.
The vet told him that Gary would probably be easily re-homed, as there’s quite a demand for pet ferrets.
But if he belongs to you, you can contact us here at emer@dailyedge.ie, or get in touch with Cara Vets on the North Circular Road.
Godspeed Gary!
