I can understand the hesitation Never-Doners have to staking out a
ferret on a level lawn with tall conifers around. And in that
assumption I have been blessed, if that's the right word, by Mother
nature. He, She, or It (not too certain of Mother nature's gender -
will assume neuter until otherwise made known) has blessed me with the
dear and devoted friendship of the Corvidae, or crow. Two of them in
fact, one female and one male, who seem to be a mated pair and who
have produced two litters of baby Corvids here adjacent to my home.
Unfortunately only a single survivor of the two litters is here with
me this day, his siblings having met with accidental deaths due to my
negligence and a neighbor womans ignorance.

My blessing is this: Every morning I am greeted by papa crow (name is
Forty) every time I step outside. His greeting is two caws. I answer
with either a whistle or by rapid tongue clicking which makes a sound
just like a crow snapping his beak one upon the other. The crow's
clicking sounds like a slow firing machine gun but at a very, very low
register, almost inaudible. On those mornings I do not get outside,
Forty flies to the kitchen window and there perches on a railing to
show himself to me and possibly also to determine if I'm up and around
inside the house. I make it a point to feed him daily with people food
or even ferret food.

OK, so what's with this crow business and how's it related to staking
8 ferrets outside?

First, the crows know that some time during the day I will broadcast
kibbled ferret chow down onto the assembled ferrets for their fare.
Within a short time the crows are down there on the ground strutting
among the tethered ferrets and helping themselves to food that the
ferrets overlook.

Second, a tremendous cacophony of screaming/cawing erupts upon the
arrival of a strange crow or other large bird, with the crows diving
upon the newly arrived stranger and peck at him without mercy. In other
words there is a lot of noise from highly excited crows and feathers do
fly until the raptor decides to leave and with the crows in hot pursuit
for about 100 yards.

Most of the ferrets stop their digging or wake up to watch the events
taking place in the high Douglas firs and other conifers.

So what we've got here is a living and breathing alarm system that is
remarkably ferret protective. And, at the same time is an alert system
for me too.

I am baffled by Mary McC's statements praising the double-looped
harness, the so-called H harness made of stiff nylon and which in her
experience she finds superior to the supple and soft leather, the
Figure 8 harness with only a single buckle instead of the two snaps,
as on the Chinese nylon job.

The soft and supple leather harness conforms to the ferrets body and
neck in a most natural way, a way of conformity that is impossible with
the Chinese junk.

Mary may have missed my installation tip of properly snugging it like a
saddle on a horse, the harness by actually lifting the ferret off the
ground and jiggling it by the end strap that has already passed through
the buckle. As stated before, it's tantamount to snugging a saddle on a
horse by pulling up on the belly strap and then locking it by inserting
the tongue of the buckle through the correct hole in the leather strap.

By the way, if one punches extra holes in the leather strap, then it
will fit any and all ferrets, regardless of size and is therefore self
adjusting. My experience with the leather Fig eights has been
completely satisfactory compared to the stiffer and cheaper nylon ,
Chinese made H's.

I would hope that all of us could give our ferrets this opportunity
to commune with Mother nature, would give our ferrets the feel of the
natural world with all its smells, textures and sounds. And if for no
other reason, to let them dig. I know for a fact that's what the front
end of a ferret is made for...to dig, dig, and to dig.

Edward Lipinski @ Ferrets North West Foundation, who says:
Yesterday is history.  Tomorrow is a mystery.  And today?  Today is a 
gift.  That's why we call it the present.  B.Olatunji

[Posted in FML 6078]