The picture on the left, of course, is Avon, age 5 months, with the old, dark coat, trying to find out if my jeans taste good. He was our first unintentional ferret. We went into the store planning on buying a little girl for our business (the ever popular Ryo-Ohki). We were never supposed to have more than three ferrets, but conditions were so bad there that my roommate couldn't leave this beautiful little guy behind. I named him Kerr Avon, after the character in the Blake's 7 science fiction series, who was played by the then incredibly cute (in my opinion) Paul Darrow. We call him Avon for short (it's pronounced Aven), just as Avon was in the series.

For a long time, Avon was, by far, our most rambunctious fuzzy. That was until Pertwee arrived, of course. He loves to play with us and to wrestle with the other ferrets, particularly Tenchi and Adric. The thing is, those two are bigger, stronger, and faster than Avon, so if they get annoyed they can still drag him across the floor, and poor Avon complains mightily, but always comes back for more.

Avon's also a people ferret. By that I mean he really craves attention from Keith and from me, and he'll often follow me around the room and jump up at my legs if I stop moving, just to get me to play with him some more or to hold him. He just can't get enough! Now, if he were Ryo-Ohki or Romana, he'd just climb up my leg and then some, but he can't. Avon used to be fattest ferret. He's slimmed down a lot, but still, he's the only one that somehow never manages to be graceful, jumps short gaps and still doesn't make it, and he even took a full year to figure out that he can actually climb things. He's fast though, and can run down any of the others if he wants to wrestle some more. OK, so his reflexes aren't as good as the others, so he catches them and they thrash him. The poor little guy just can't win. When we got a new ferret he could pick on, like Pertwee, in no time Pertwee outgrew him and started thrashing him too, at least for a while. A bout with adrenal disease made our little guy a whole lot more aggressive for a while, and he managed to move up the pecking order. OK, he's seventh, ahead of only Ryo-Ohki, but I guess that's better than being the ferret that never wins. Heck, he can even hold his own with Pertwee some of the time now.

Still he's got this incredible exuberant personality, and can be the most affectionate fuzzy you'd ever want to have. His coat is beautiful, and those burgundy eyes are just incredible on him. When Keith and I divided the business just in case we ever went our separate ways, I got Avon, and I'm sure glad I did. Keith, on the other hand has found out what I already knew: Avon is the ultimate cuddle ferret. (Keith even thinks "Cuddle Weasel" or just "Cuddles" should be his name!) Keith loves our littlest boy, and I think how much I love having him around shows in this page.

Avon used to be very, very, VERY vocal. He chitters and dooks when he wrestles still, but he used to vocalize when he would run around and when he would play. For a while he made more noise than the other seven put together, but for some reason that changed, and Nyssa is our little chatterbox now. He's still definitely a character, but that's a big part of his charm. Every ferret has his or her own personality, and Avon's is different, and nothing but fun.

Oh, and yes, I've corrected the spelling of his name. It's definitely should sound like Aven, but I've been watching Blake's 7 again, and his namesake was spelled with an o. So, please don't give our little boy a cosmetic company's name, OK?

-Last updated September 17, 2000

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