I lurk daily, but I thought I would weigh in on this, as I actually got
into the world of ferrets 7 years ago when I felt badly about leaving
my 5 year old cat, Ori home alone. I considered a kitty companion, but
Ori had been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease so another cat might
bring a contagen into the house. With extensive research, I learned
that ferrets and cats can make great playmates and that ferrets don't
carry the diseases I was worried about our Ori possibly catching. I
have several great pictures of our baby ferret, Pika and Ori snuggling
and playing together and since Ori was a rather sickly cat, she never
once played rough with him. Pika was caged during the day, and Ori
slept on top where Pika's favorite hammie was. Unfortunately, Ori had
a fatal seizure in our arms when Pika was just 1.5 years old. The day
after her death, I noticed Pika acting "off" and later that day, I
"lost" him. I searched and searched our apartment, only to find him
buried de! ep in our laundry basket-when I dug him out, I found he
had located and curled up in the last blanket that Ori had slept on.

Depressed, Pika got a new kitten, then another ferret to share his cage
during the day. We've had a half-dozen shelter-rescue ferrets over the
years and always one shelter-rescue cat. Our current 6 year old cat,
does do the "rabbit kick" as they call it if (my otherwise sweetest
boy) Boo tries to nip her belly (she has a primordial pouch), so they
do have to be supervised. I also cut her nails every week to ten days
so she can't do much damage (many shelters offer free nail trims for
cats if you can't do it alone-it prevents 'destructive' cats from
winding up back at the shelter or worse!). I also tried to train the
cat to use scratching posts, boards, etc. but with no avail as she
preferred to scratch canvas fabric-unfortunately, this is the material
my couch is made of. Despite keeping her nails VERY short, she still
seemed to get the couch, so for the last year I have used Soft
Claws-the rubber nail caps-with much success. I find them at Pet
Supplies Plus and Dr. Fo! ster and Smith online. I used 3 packages
in one year about $15-20 per package so it is a low-cost humane
alternative. So, from my experience, most cats and ferrets can
get along, but it is always important to supervise interspecies
interactions. Additionally, for cats, a little work from the
owner-supervision and some time (training, cutting nails and/or
applying Soft Claws) can avoid an unnesscessary surgery with a painful
recovery.

Hope this helps!
-Kathryn and ferts Boo, Ashe, and June Bug (all adopted from South
Shore Ferret Care, MA)

[Posted in FML 7150]