The ferret whisperer

On a freezing cold day in January 2010, Bay View resident Robin Barnes was walking his pet ferret on S. Howell Avenue past a stand of shrubs that borders the former Maritime Bank parking lot. When his ferret nudged a fuzzy object under the shrubs, Barnes told his little buddy to disregard what he thought was a nasty, dirty little discarded plush toy.

But then the object began to shudder.

Barnes took a closer look and discovered a baby female ferret, only four inches long. He scooped her up and rescued her. The vet who examined the tiny orphan said she was three or four months old.

Barnes named his foundling Zha Zha, and she recuperated under his care. She was in sublime health Oct. 22 when she was spotted crossing Howell Avenue at Lincoln—without a leash. She gamboled across the intersection, past Guanajuato and A.K. Food Mart, and stopped only a few moments to pose for her Compass portrait.

Neighbors beamed at Zha Zha and paused to let her pass. Strangers stopped with many questions. Barnes conversed with everyone who asked about her and encouraged tentative, curious children to stroke her.

As she continued to make her way home, Zha Zha stopped under a tree to snatch a seedpod before scrambling deftly up the steps of her apartment building where she nosed one of the big glass doors. She looked back at Barnes and seemed impatient to be let in. Barnes confirmed that she was eager to get through those doors since she knew there were treats waiting for her when she got home.

Her caretaker is ever vigilant about protecting Zha Zha from hawks, as she’d make a succulent entrée.

Not long ago a large hawk landed on the cyclone fence near Barnes’ apartment building, just a few feet above Zha Zha. He ran at the hawk shouting and vigorously flapping his arms, which discouraged the hawk from diving for the ferret and frightened it off.

Barnes said he frequently finds and rescues abandoned ferrets in his Bay View neighborhood, and because of his kindness and protection of these creatures, is called Ferret Man by friends and neighbors.

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