Hey everyone.  I thought I would put my $.02 in about ferrets and digging.
Almost a year ago, my fiance and I moved into a townhouse together and
bought new living room furniture.  Well I already knew how much Philbert
loved to dig under things.  However, he likes to dig carpet and not the
sofa or love seat.  Here is what we did to save our security deposit.  I
found a little carpet store in downtown Richmond that sold bound pieces of
carpet the size of a doormat for $1.  I bought approximately 20 of them.
They are now under the sofa, loveseat, our dresser, chest of drawers and
the chest of drawers in the guest room.  There is also one over the door
frame to the bathroom to prevent him from squeezing under the door and
getting in there.  His favorite place to curl up and go to sleep is under
the chest of drawers in the guest room.  We have given him free reign to
dig under there b/c all he is digging on is the carpet piece and not the
main carpet.  We also let him try to dig his way into the bathroom for the
same reason---he's not hurting the main carpet.  Now, we tried to confine
it to just this.  However, for awhile he still liked to get under the sofa
and loveseat and scratch.  But he never really hurt the sofa or loveseat.
We have recently fixed this.  We got one of those plastic tubs and filled
it with about half a 40-pound bag of topsoil.  You can buy a 40-pound bag
for $1-$2.  It is just dirt and it is slightly moist.  Philbert LOVES it.
But because when he plays in it his nose and paws turn black and I have
to rinse them off we don't let him in it everyday.  So we keep a lid on it
and it stays moist.  I have noticed that he has been scratching under the
sofa and loveseat a lot less since we got him this.  We also have a cat
scratching post that he loves to scatch on.  Sorry this is so long but I
just wanted to share our ideas.
 
Sincerely,
Theresa & Philbert
[Posted in FML issue 3765]