Tweet   By GLENN E. RICE The Kansas City Star By the time the Grain Valley parents heard their 4-month-old child scream, they were too late.  The family’s ferret had attacked the boy and chewed off nearly all of the infant’s fingers. Only the child’s two thumbs and part of a pinkie finger remained, Police Chief Aaron Ambrose said. The incident was reported about 2:30 a.m. Monday at a res More..idence in the 200 block of Young Street. The baby is being treated at a hospital, and his condition was not available. An investigation is continuing. Ambrose said the child was asleep when his mother heard him scream and raced to the room where he was sleeping. The father also heard the commotion, dashed into the room, grabbed the ferret and flung it across the room, killing it, Ambrose said. Investigators did not know if the ferret was left outside its cage. Nor did Ambrose know if other children were at the home. “This is awful — a very, very unfortunate incident,” he said. Mary Geiger, co-founder of the Ferret Awareness Club of the Tri-Cities in Bristol, Tenn., an adoption and rescue group, said her group often advises families with children under 12 years old not to own ferrets. Younger children do not understand the concept of “gentle” in handling a pet, she said. Geiger said ferrets are docile but should be placed in their cages at night or when their owners are not home. Ferrets are curious animals, she said, and will get into everything. “They are several pounds of curiosity and mischief,” Geiger said. “It is such a rare, rare event for them to attack.” Ferrets would only attack or bite if provoked, she said. Though infrequent, similar attacks are not unprecedented in the Kansas City area. In February 2007, a rat was blamed for disfiguring a 4-week-old girl’s face after it apparently crawled into her crib in the 4100 block of Montgall Avenue. The infant, who was born prematurely, wore a heart and breathing monitor. The parents heard...