Obi Ferret and the Pirates Booty

Preface

Hi, that's a picture of my big brother, Obi, when he was younger. I'm pretty sure he was in court that day, and that was his reply to the judge when he was sentenced to a week behind the bars of a cage.

My name is Nymphadora Arwen Tonks, and I am a ferret. Ferrets are members of the weasel family, including Otters and Badgers. Like our wild cousins, we are fierce, curious, and love to mesmerize our prey through interpretive dance. We are common pets, not easy, and not recommended for families with small children. We tend to play pretty rough, and did I mention we have powerful jaws? Now that we know what ferrets are, I'd like to introduce you to some of my family members involved in my big brothers' shenanigans.

I will start with Wicket and Ben, as they are no longer with us and have passed over the Rainbow bridge, but they were present in many of Obi's adventures. They were the oldest and original ferrets of the household. Ben was easygoing and loved everyone. He always had a positive outlook and rarely got upset. Ben was also in charge of all the toys and had stores throughout the house that he would inventory daily. During his younger years, Ben participated and took first place in many strongest ferret competitions, but you would never know it by how gentle he was. Daddy called him Gentle Ben, after the bear in the TV show "Grizzly Adams."

As gentle as Ben was, Wicket was a terror. She ran the business with an iron fist backed up with powerful jaws. She may have been the "Littlest Weasel," as daddy liked to call her, but she was in charge in a very "large" way. She and Ben were adopted from the local shelter. Wicket was quite the biter, making it difficult to find a home for both of them. Daddy and Wicket fell in love with each other when they first met. Even though she had been a biter, she never bit daddy except while playing, though she would still go after others, including Mommy, on occasion. Usually, this was when mommy changed the bedding and cleaned up the toys. When Mommy was finished, Wicket would walk up and bite her just to let her know she wasn't happy with having to break in clean linens or steal her toys back. Mommy named her after one of the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi.

Next, we have (Shady) Sadie. She may come off all innocent, but she didn't earn that nickname for being innocent. Daddy is convinced that Obi wouldn't get into half the trouble he did if it weren't for Sadie instigating things and appealing to his ego by daring him to do something. Don't get me wrong, Sadie isn't a bad ferret. She is just naughty enough to ensure she gets Obi in trouble for her ideas. Sadie used to belong to Daddy's daughter, and she is wanted in Colorado for murdering a hamster. The authorities may also want Sadie in a few other states, so I'm not allowed to include a picture showing her face.

This handsome dude is my other older brother, Remus. Remus loves to read, and he also likes science and math. Needless to say, Obi and Sadie usually use Remus in some way while putting their plans into action. You see, Remus is a genius. To give you an example, because he and Mina are deaf, Remus rigged up a couple of computer tablets to convert spoken words to text so they could keep up with conversations. Obi thinks the tablets are too sensitive and pick up conversations they shouldn't. Obi says the tablets can "pick up a flea fart" from two rooms away. Of course, Obi loves the tablets when it comes to an engineering problem that he wants Remus to figure out. Remus is also the official historian of our business and producer of Tonks Talk, a talk show I host with my sister, Mina.

This picture is of my best friend and sister, Mina. Mina is the same age as I am, but we weren't at the shelter at the same time, so it was fate that we ended up together. After getting Remus and me, Mommy and Daddy weren't going to get another ferret until either Obi or Sadie passed over the Rainbow Bridge. So when Daddy told Mommy that the shelter had another youngster that seemed to be special needs, we were shocked that Mommy went to check on it and even more surprised when Mommy came home saying that our family would be growing by one in a few days. Mina will be a year old in a couple of months and is deaf.

There are also a few other characters that you will meet during our adventure, but we are the core group. After all, this is a ferret adventure, not a feline adventure. So head to the kitchen for a snack and sit back as we begin the tale of Obi Ferret and the Pirates Booty.