Dear Ferret Folks-

I almost didn't write this. The whole topic usually just serves to get
me kicked around in a manner that I don't particularly care for. But
what I have to say comes from experience, from real life, and I think
it is valuable.

I have lost ferrets to dogs. Note the plural there, DOGS. You'd think
that after the first time, I'd make sure it couldn't possibly happen
again. I thought that I had done so. I was wrong.

I lost Switch the Kit to my sister and law Jennifer's awful dog, Holly.
We lived upstairs, Jennifer and Holly lived downstairs. Two separate
apartments. Holly killed chickens, a few cats. A family of rabbits.
She was fine with people and she was well-fed. She just liked to kill
things.

Accordingly, Jennifer and her Mother understood the need to keep the
door between our two apartments closed. Except when they didn't. It
wasn't my house. Sometimes doors that I were promised would never be
left open were left open. And it only takes a minute for a ferret gone
AWOL to find an open door. That is what Switch the Kit did. And Holly
found her in HOLLY'S apartment, and made quick work of her. I heard
the terrible disturbance, the beginning. I ran. I fought Holly. I was
bitten getting Switch away from her. The damage was done. Switch died
in my arms while I heaved great sobs.

I never, ever left that door open. But that wasn't enough to keep my
ferrets safe.

I lost (oh, god...just the memory...) my sweet Ping is He to a dog I
loved and trusted utterly. The Noble Allis Chompers. She lived with
us for fourteen years. A wise Border Collie mix, she put up with an
amazing amount of crap from ferrets. Mostly she just ignored them, or
walked away if they were being troublesome, messing with her tail or
jumping on her back. Her deeply pained expression when they ate from
her chow bowl was a study in pathos worthy of the great Spanish Masters
trying to convey the suffering of Christ on his last day in oil paint.

In eleven years, Allis never, ever hurt a ferret. Not at all. She
occasionally barked at one, just to teach it manners. That decade plus
lulled me into a false sense of security. I assumed that ferrets were
safe with her. They were. Until the day they weren't. I Will never know
quite what happened. After the fact, we came to realize that Allis at
twelve was suffering from Arthritis pain. Maybe Ping is He jumped on
her, or out at her, and her old bones ached. She snapped. She lashed
out with her teeth. Ping was helped across the Bridge by the excellent
Vets at Tufts University in Grafton, MA.

And that was the LAST time I ever trusted a dog with a ferret. My boys
and my dog know one another through cage bars, period. When my boys are
loose, my dog is closed up in my bedroom, and *I* control the door. I
don't trust anyone else to keep it closed. My animals, my
responsibility.

Please, learn from my mistakes. Your ferrets are perfectly safe with
what I am sure are your very nice dogs. Until the day that they aren't.

Alexandra in MA

[Posted in FML 7526]