I just caught up with a few days' worth of FMLs and had a few
responses/items to post...
 
Free roam ferrets: my ferrets have always been free roam in my bedroom
24/7, with access to most of the rest of the house when people are home
(no kitchen or bathroom).  I believe my ferrets are happier and healthier
this way, but it does mean certain trade-offs.  One is the obvious:
litter training is more difficult.  They do tend to use consistent places
however, so placing a box or paper in those spots works pretty well.
Another is that they can bug the heck out of you at night with scratching
at your legs or nibbling on your toes.  In my experience if you calmly
haul them out from under the covers, tell them to quit it and place them
calmly on the floor, they get the hint after the tenth time or so and let
you sleep (just kidding about the tenth time part.  sort of.).  Neither
of my current weasels sleep in the bed, but Amelia slept in my nightshirt
every night for years and had no qualms about shoving me over if she felt
I was taking up too much room :)
 
And there's nothing like waking up on a weekend morning to a little furry
face peeking at you wondering if you're going to get up and play.  There
are also arguments about controlling photoperiods; because my ferrets
have a den under the foot of the bed and we have black bedding, they do
actually have a light-proof sleeping area even without a cage, which is
kind of neat.  And then of course you have to be even more hypervigilant
about ferretproofing, and there's the issue of knowing where they are in
the case of an emergency.
 
Mostly I am citing negative things here, but that's to show that free
roam is not a decision to be made lightly, but one that I think is worth
making if your personal circumstances allow it.
 
Meat-eating: well, if ferrets could operate fishing trawlers, Seti would
do fine in the wild--he's developed a taste for calimari rings.  I'm not
sure whether it was the breading or the rubbery texture or the oil they
were fried in, but he thought they were a great treat.  So if Seti ever
gets loose, all those squids had better watch their tentacles! :)
 
Silliness: and if squid aren't silly enough, here's something even
sillier--an example of genetic experimentation gone horribly wrong
over at Muppet Labs:
 
http://www.livejournal.com/users/monsterweasels/
 
 :)
 
Regina
 
Regina Harrison  [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]
http://www.channel1.com/users/regina/
blog: http://www.channel1.com/users/regina/zblog.html
 
Is that my business?  Well, what is my business?  Do I know?  Did I ever
know?  Let s not go into that.  You re not human tonight, Marlowe.  Maybe
I never was or ever will be... Maybe we all get like this in the cold
half-lit world where always the wrong thing happens and never the right.
--Raymond Chandler, The Little Sister
[Posted in FML issue 4028]