Re:fear of heights
Being afraid of heights myself, I sympathize with your little fuzzy. I also
find this phenomenon very interesting. Ralph the flying ferret will run up the
stairs, but doesn't like to come back down them. (Perhaps this is due to the
flying leap he took at his previous home through the banister and down an
entire flight of stairs?) My very large dog Max has a similar fear. He will go
up certain steep flights of stairs, but will absolutely not come back down.
(This has caused some interesting situations since he is too big to carry.)
Could this be something about depth perception in certain animals?
 
Re: litter boxes
I don't have carpets, so having a ferret miss the litter box occasionally isn't
such a problem in my house. I find that my ferrets will often use the cat
litter boxes, but they also have certain corners that they like. So when they
choose a corner, I put down a piece of newspaper for them, which I like better
than litter boxes. If they go somewhere else I just clean it up. It's been my
experience that ferrets are not 100% litter box/newspaper users.
 
--Cinderella, Norm & Ralph's mom
 
[Posted in FML issue 0953]