A broken rule; a trained “luck dragon” and an impressed Veterinarian
Elissa grew up in an apartment in Queens, NY. The rule was no pets. After graduating high school with a vocational degree in Animal Science, Elissa broke the rule and bought a ferret. She named him Falkore after the Luck Dragon in the movie “The Never-Ending Story. And he was lucky as Elissa’s Mom let him stay despite the rule.
Elissa litter box trained Falkore in a matter of weeks, so he no longer needed a cage. He went to work with Elissa, sitting curled up on her desk or hanging out in her purse. Elissa took Falkore for walks in the park where he would walk alongside her without a leash. He knew sit, down, stay, and come. Elissa loved to take Falkore places just to see the smile he would bring to people’s faces. She even took him to nursing homes on therapy visits.
When Falkore was a year-old Elissa took him to the vet. When the Vet walked into the room, he asked her what was wrong with her ferret. She told him that nothing was wrong; they were just there for a wellness exam and shots. He said that something must be wrong with her ferret as he is just lying there, and ferrets don’t just lay there. Elissa explained, she told him to down/stay and that was why he was being so still. The Vet told Elissa that was impossible because you cannot train a ferret to do things. Elissa let Falkore off the exam table, had him run around for a bit then put him back on the table telling him to down/stay. The Vet shook his head and said he had never seen anything like it before. He was impressed.
That was the day Elissa learned that she has a gift. No one taught her how to teach Falkore those things. She just did it. It was innate for her. She left the Vet’s office that day, went home, and started to look at colleges. She knew what she was going to do with the rest of her life, and it was no longer scary. It was going to be wonderful!