Hi Guys!
 
>Another, unrelated question: I'd like to take the ferrets with me on short day
>trips (I enjoy walks in the woods, along rivers, etc; and think they would,
>too) but I'm not sure what to do about their habit of doing their business
>whenever (and sometimes wherever) they please.  I've heard of people carrying
>their fuzzies around in backpacks -- is there a way of keeping them from
>soiling them?
 
In the Winstead book the author describes a roomy bag which has a mini litter
pan and a food dish inside.  Apparently her ferrets went everywhere with her in
this bag - even to school!  I have a friend who uses a gym bag (one of the ones
with a solid bottom) containing a large shoe box as the litter pan (he tapes
the box to the side of the bag to keep it from sliding about) to take his pets
with him.  If this winter ever ends (please, please, please)  I'm going to try
it myself cause I think Alky would like to go walking with me.  BTW - are you a
chemist or chemistry major perhaps?  I'm wondering about your ferrets' names.
I'm a chemist/chemistry grad student, hence the name Alky (short for alkyl).
 
Also - Norris Harber asks if anyone else plays the towel game.  Alky loves this
game!  It's a morning ritual - I drop my wet towel on the floor, Alky jumps up
and down on it trying to get it to move by itself, and if by this time I
haven't started pulling it, she squeaks to get my attention.  This game works
*really* well with flexible dryer hose.  She climbs inside one end, and then we
pick up the other end and pull it around the house.  She seems to like this
even more than with the towel.  I think that's because she gets rolled around
from side to side as we traverse corners at high speed.  It's really pretty
funny - we are pulling the hose, she's inside jumping up and down going
"DOOKDOOKDOOK", and the dog brings up the rear barking.  It usually ends when
she jumps enough that she loses her grip on the ridges and falls out, usually
on one of the aforementioned corners.
 
Now a question - does anybody know of a brand of aquarium top that is
ferret-proof?  Alky has developed a penchant for fishing recently.  I've been
weighting/taping the top down but that's not too convenient, and I haven't seen
a heavy combo strip light/aquarium top at the pet shop.  The other thing is I'm
not even sure how she's getting to the top of the fish tank - I think she's
scaling the stand and then reaching to the top of the tank to pull herself up
since there's no other furniture around - I'm going to keep a really close eye
on her and watch her do it.  I guess I could get a non-climbable stand.  Any
ideas??
 
Liesl in Princeton (GO TIGERS!!)
 
[Posted in FML issue 0776]