I have been blessed to have wonderful experiences with ferrets and
dogs! When I had ferrets before, I had a mini dachshund and he was
wonderful with them. I had a total of 9 ferrets and he knew each one by
name. When it was playtime, he'd go open the cage and let them out. If
one of the ferrets was getting into trouble, I'd tell the dog to go get
so-and-so, and he'd go nudge them until they lost interest in whatever
they had been doing!
That was roughly 10 years ago and I lost my last ferret of that bunch
in January 2002...and the dog went with my ex-hubby in the divorce in
1998 (along with 4 of the ferrets). I decided no more ferrets after
losing 3 of them in 4 months to various health problems. That summer,
I was chosen by a beautiful female Pit Bull puppy, Kyah. I brought her
home to a miniature zoo...I had 2 rabbits, dwarf hamsters, a cat and 2
birds at the time...and I think some rats too. Even as she grew, she
knew to always respect the other critters.
Last weekend I was blessed with 2 rescue case ferrets. When I brought
them into the house, I told Kyah to be gentle with the "babies"...
that's a key word with her. If I tell her something is a baby, she
knows that means she has to tone down the play level. I got their
temporary cage cleaned up and ready to go, then let them loose in the
spare bedroom to explore. Kyah was whining at the door, so I let her in
and held her collar for a few minutes and let her sniff them. She was
immediately in love with Duckie! She even got nipped by him and just
made a little whine because she was afraid she'd hurt him if she moved!
Granted, I would never leave the dogs (I also have a male Pit/American
Bully mix who is scared to death of the ferrets) and ferrets
unsupervised, but with supervision, it is a great playtime around here!
It all depends on the individual dog's personality. Shock (the male
dog) gets very limited playtime with the ferrets due to his fear of
them. I'm gradually getting him used to them and he generally just sits
in my lap and lets them do their own thing!
Anyhoo...that's just my experience and I know that not all dogs can be
trusted to play nice with little fuzzies. I'm lucky to have the zoo I
have. :-)
Here are some pics of everyone playing happily:
http://picasaweb.google.com/brooke.lusky/Ferrets
http://picasaweb.google.com/brooke.lusky/Ferrets318
Brooke
(with 2 ferrets, 2 Pits, a cat, 4 birds and some fish!)
[Posted in FML 5918]
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