Some many not like this but I think that the teen who wants a ferret but
whose parents are very reluctant needs to be extra, extra careful about
every objection before adding a ferret.  As has been pointed out, even
though many teens are completely responsible, there still are many teens
and kids whose ferrets wind up crowding shelters because the young one
gets tired of the pet and the parents won't or can't take care of it.
 
The age of the teen was not given or I forgot it and that actually has
bearing since a child who will go away to college will leave the pet behind
and the parents already oppose the idea of a ferret.  For that reason, as
well as the tendency of her dog to over-react to anything moving rapidly I
think that this person, if she can manage the medical care costs, should
consider adopting an OLDER ferret, one age 3 or 4 IF she is going to be at
home for the next 5 years or so (even though they can go longer that allows
for the common age ranges).  Because she doesn't already know ferrets well
I don't think that she'd be ideal for one who is even older because she
wouldn't know health problems when she spotted them.
 
Let's face it, with parents who are strongly opposed to a ferret, if this
is a teen who will leave home in a year or three, and she winds up with a
young ferret then a shelter is very likley going to be dumped upon again.
 
If the ferret is young and the dog tends to not be safe with rapidly moving
critters (though it's fine with those who are slower) then the chances of
an accident that could be avoided become quite high.
 
What might be most ideal for her would be to volunteer at ferret shelter
to get in her ferret time ( and LOADS or loving), or to become someone who
takes in the unadoptable ferrets and handles their daily care and costs,
while the shelter pays for medical care at the shelter's vet.  At least
several shelters have this sort of arrangement to ease over-crowding.
 
FIRST, though, she needs to ask herself why she wants a ferret and write
that down, then learn everything she can get a hold of on ferrets to see
where her misconceptions lie so that is aware of them.  She definitely
needs to learn all the things at http://www.ferretcentral.org (NOT .com
which is far more recent and not at all as informative) as a start, etc.
Then she needs to arrange for her father to have multiple exposures to
ferrets (one is not enough unless there's a generalized allergy grouping)
before adding one.
 
When the child will be soon leaving home but the ferret remaining there
with parents who dislike it and don't want it, the one for whom the
combination has the most chance of spelling absolute disaster is the
ferret.
 
--
Had something either not send due to worsening computer problems, or lost
in mail.  (Or I just plain missed that it was in.)  Anyway, Steve also has
the whole male ferret allergy on top of his cat allergy.  That makes two
people but it's a curiousity.  Am wondering if anyone else has that allergy
combo.
[Posted in FML issue 3077]