The Schubert Site: Stories about a sable ferret, a tabby cat, and a full and joyful life.
A gallery of adorable ferret pictures
When Schubert broke into our apartment
Why you should think twice before getting a ferret
The day Schubert caught a "mouse"
Schubert and the big red balloon
When Schubert broke into our house
When Schubert was younger, we lived in a small apartment in Pembroke, NC. It was before we bought Schubert that our apartment was broken into. I still remember vividly coming home from classes around 4:00 in the afternoon; our front door was still locked. When I walked into the living room I wondered what could have possessed Chris to leave the house in such a state. His clothes and decorative swords were strewn all over the room; things were knocked over and broken. I started picking up things, wondering why Chris's swords were out, as the realization hit me slowly that things were missing. Lots of things. The back door and the windows were wide open.
It was about a half a year later that we got Schubert and I hated leaving him alone in that place. They caught the people that had broken in, but I still wondered, every time I left, if it might happen again.
We were a little nervous about leaving the ferret on his own, but we closed him in a room and it usually worked pretty well. Schubert grew bored with only one room (as ferrets are prone to do) and he rattled his cage and tore at the carpet to get out of the room. He was allowed out to roam the entire apartment when we were home, and didn't see why he shouldn't have the run of the house when we were away as well.
One day we left the house for a day and came back that evening to a horrifying sight. Clothes were strewn all over the room; the coat rack was knocked over in front of the door. We stood in the doorway as the room registered, and we scanned for missing items. The doors and windows were still closed. Nothing seemed to be gone.
We looked towards the hallway. Casually, innocently, Schubert stopped and looked up at us. He had a leather belt from Chris's coat nearby, and walked up to us as if to say "Who, me? Why, I just came out to see you since you're home. "
It took us longer than it should have to realize that Schubert was responsible for the entire mess. He had ripped the coats from the rack and toppled over everything near the door to get to that leather belt. I'll never forget the stab of panic when we thought that Schubert had broken into our apartment.