Kimberley Paterson's Blog: All about Frankie the Ferret

I just love to steal your socks!
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This was Frankie's favorite thing to do, sometimes you would think you had lost your mind because your socks or other items were not where you were sure you had left them. Frankie had a special spot for storing his borrowed items, we all knew that if you could not find something, it more than likely would be there.

Frankie loved to take socks, right out of the laundry basket, clean or dirty did not make any difference to him, a treasure was a treasure. Ferrets love anything made of rubber, which we did not know until we adopted him so he was famous for stealing toothbrushes, hair brushes, rubber oven mitts, you name it, he tried to carry it away. Size was never an issue, he would run backwards dragging the item by his teeth.

We found his treasure hiding spot by accident during the weekly vacuuming when I discovered a pair of socks and a toothbrush. We were not aware that Frankie was doing this during his free time from his cage and just figured they had accidentally fallen there from the couch. But with every new week, cleaning provided more and more missing objects. We were beginning to suspect who the little culprit was but still had not caught Frankie in the act.

One day we were watching a program while Frankie was out and about looking for trouble when we saw him run by with a toothbrush in his mouth. When we called his name, he quickly scurried under the couch with his prize. Aha, caught red-handed but how did he get that toothbrush? It seems that the item had been sitting on the side of the bathtub and he was able to stand on his hind legs and grab it.

What a sneaky little fellow he was! There were many items that he collected that we had to retrieve which concerned Frankie that his items kept disappearing but he was quite happy to venture out to find more.

When we picked Frankie up from the pet store, my son had a hockey practice so Frankie came to the arena with us. As this was all new to him, he just slept in my jacket the entire time with his head sticking out. One of the fathers related a story to me about his interaction with ferrets. He was a firefighter and had been called out to a small fire in the upper level of the house a few years back. They had to cut open the wall to contain the fire and they found 50 pairs of socks (his words not mine) stocked up in between the studs which they found quite interesting. When they mentioned it to the owner, he was shocked but it certainly eased his mind because he could not figure out how his socks kept disappearing over the years, mystery solved.

Frankie was such a beautiful little creature and we miss him dearly! Now, our toothbrushes are exactly where we put them last! Makes me wonder where the socks really go when they are transferred to the dryer from the washer?

Thank you for reading, more adventures to follow!

Better not leave the door open, I will be through it in a flash was Frankie’s favorite thing to do!

He was forever sneaking outside, every chance that he had. There was one time that he did escape unnoticed and ended up being missing for 7 days, we thought that we would never see him again.

When we realized that we could not find him in his special sleeping spots outside of his cage, as a family, we all went outside in different directions calling his name but he never appeared. Every day from morning to night, when we could, we would all do our part going out and continuously calling him as we walked the property but being situated on a 12 acre property, he could be anywhere, Frankie was pretty fast and quite elusive when he wanted to be!

As the days continued without any sign of him, we started to resign ourselves to the fact that we may never see Frankie again. This was during the month of October and it was getting colder at night, we all were pretty upset that Frankie might actually be gone for good.

On the 7th day which was a Friday night, my son and I decided we would go to Haugen’s restaurant in Port Perry to get takeout, we love the food there and thought this might help to cheer us up a little. Just as we arrived there, I received a call on my cell from home. When I answered, my husband quickly said, he’s back, we did not even have to ask who, we knew our little guy Frankie had returned, probably very hungry by this time! We were all so relieved!

​When we arrived home with dinner, we asked for details on how Frankie had arrived home again. More details to follow, stay tuned!

Hello and welcome to my blog.

Let me introduce myself first, my name is Kimberley Paterson and I have just recently published my first book for children entitled “Frankie the Ferret”.
I was born in Uxbridge, Ontario, a small rural farming town about one hour north of Toronto and have remained very close by for the past 40 years in Claremont with my spouse Doug, our chocolate lab Molly along with two cats, Kitty and Tobey. My children live close by as well, my daughter Melanie, her spouse James and their three children, Bryce, Ainsley and Preston as well as my son Shayne, his spouse Natasha and their son Colby.
Over the years, we have had quite a menagerie of family pets with Frankie being one of the most entertaining furry little creatures you could ever meet!
This book has been in the works for approximately 15 years and is dedicated to the memory of Frankie, a very cherished member of our family for nine years. After I became a grandmother, I thought it would be a great idea to share Frankie with my grandchildren since they would never have a chance to meet and love him like we did.
My lifelong dream has been to write a children’s book, to not only entertain children but to enrich their lives. I believe that books will stimulate young minds, provide development by learning new things, and provide relaxation so that they too can provide relieve from stress as they grow older, they can learn so much.
Next time, as outlined in the book, I will provide some details to those Frankie adventures!

Thank you for taking the time to read this, I appreciate all of the love and support that has come my way from family and friends as well as all of the new friends of Frankie the Ferret since his release!