James--
      Ferrets certainly do not dislike water enough to stay out of your
tanks!  Witness John Gaver's story and the fact that I have fished one of my
ferrets out of my 55 gallon tank where part of the lid was missing!  To fix
the gap at the rear of the glass, go to your pet store and purchase a length
of plastic stripping designed to slide onto the back edge of the glass and
rest on the rim of the tank.  It can be cut with a razor blade cutter or
shears to allow room for necessary tank appliances without leaving room for
a fuzzy to squeeze in.  It's cheap, easy, and effective.  They won't likely
cause a problem for the fish.  Two of my three are either TOTALLY
uninterested or just plain can't see the fish with their less than perfect
ferret vision.  Other considerations include power cords and airlines.  At
least 2 of my ferrets like to chew on the air hoses (after all, they give
much more than a boring electrical cord), especially where I've used the
soft silicon hose.  They like to disconnect the hose from the pump outlets
and let the air blow on them.  Put these out of reach or spray often with
bitter apple.  They eventually lose the greatest part of their interest in
the hoses and cords this way.  My 250+ gallons of fish tanks are now at
peace with the fuzzies.
        Ditto John on bitter apple on cords and child safety locks on
cabinets, especially any cabinets with things like plumbing coming into
them.  The holes the clowns that built our apartments put through the
sheetrock to allow plumbing could mean a ferret trapped in the wall in
nothing flat, especially since our Shadow can open any door not firmly
latched and Laska has learned from watching him.  If the inexpensive plastic
locks are found to be to horribly unattractive in your home, there is a more
expensive, yet aesthetically pleasing and effective product on the market.
All hardware is installed INSIDE the cabinet so that nothing shows on the
outside.  It operates on some sort of magnetic principle.  You have a "key"
that releases the latch when placed on the cabinet door over the spot where
the latch is inside.  When the door is closed and the key removed, I cannot
open the door no matter how hard I pull.  The key will stick to your
refrigerator or is small enough to go inside just about any drawer, shelf,
or other hidy hole you want for storage.  The locks cost about $28 for a set
of five at the Home Depot hardware and home improvement stores in my area
(Dallas/Ft. Worth).  They are kept near the cabinetry and bathroom supplies
in the stores around me.  I'm sorry that I can't remember the name of the
product or the company that makes them.  We were shown these when we told a
guy in the store we were looking for child saftey locks for our cabinets,
but the cabinets have no handles.  Neat Item!
                        Debra
 
[Posted in FML issue 0604]