Lost ferret returns home after scare

LAKEWOOD RANCH — Greenbrook resident Kelly Gessner was in panic mode Dec. 8 when she discovered Teddy, her 2-year-old ferret, had gone missing.

Gessner left home with the screened windows open Dec. 8 but didn’t think anything about it until her neighbor, Tom Best, arrived at her doorstep that evening to tell her he’d returned three of her missing ferrets.

The Gessners own four ferrets, which roam loose in the house during the day. Gessner hadn’t seen the fourth — Teddy — all day.

“We started searching; he had a head start,” Gessner said, noting their cat, Ginger, pushed the screen out of the window and escaped. Ginger was later found outside near their home.

While Gessner had been out running errands, Best was talking with another neighbor when the pair spotted a white-coated animal in a yard down the street. Best thought it might be one of the Gessners’ missing ferrets because one had escaped previously.

Then, he spotted another ferret sitting on a neighbor’s windowsill.

Best grabbed a box from his garage, collected the ferrets and headed next door. He dropped the ferrets through the window and resecured the screen after he realized Gessner wasn’t home.

“I came back home and the third ferret was crawling in my downspout,” Best said. “It’s cute. I have a dog that likes to get into things. I relate to it. He’s an escape artist.”

Teddy, however, remained at large.

Gessner and her children, Olivia and Callum, began their search, soliciting the help of friends and neighbors.

Wildlife rescuer Justin Matthews, of Justin Matthews Wildlife Rescue, came out Dec. 9 and set up a live trap in the Gessner’s yard.

That night, the trap, baited with cat food, captured the neighbor’s cat. Gessner reset it, and when she checked it at 6 a.m. Dec. 10, Teddy was inside.

“He was curled up in his blanket that I had put in there,” Gessner said. “After two days of cold and some rain, he was safe and sound. I think it was our own Christmas miracle.”

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].