Hello furries and friends!
 
In case you've forgotten me, I'll reintroduce myself and my "kids"...
we recently moved from Ottawa to Saskatoon and I haven't had much time to
post. I have been reading the FML though, thanks to you all for posting
and asking questions, you've answered many of mine as well.
 
I am a computer geekoid type, usually found happily cruising the Web,
when I'm not at home amusing the fuzzies. :) I am owned by Sprocket,
a 7 year old sable, and Ivanova, a 5 year old Silver mitt.  Sprocket is
still very active, leaps across furniture, digs at carpets, gets into
everything. Ivanova has an attitude and keeps Sprocket in line (gently of
course, the iron hand in the velvet glove sorta thing, like her namesake
from Babylon 5).  I've had these two for nearly a year, and it's been
wonderful. They've captured the hearts of nearly everyone who's seen them,
probably because people come into my home thinking they'll see rat-like
critters, and end up wrestling with Sprocket on the floor and asking me
if the ferrets would like another treat. :)
 
So I've travelled on a plane with ferrets, and I can speak from experience:
Air Canada does allow ferrets on board, if the carrier fits under the seat
in front of you, or in a pet cargo cage that does not leak (or that has a
water bottle in place of a water dish, if the cage isn't leakproof).
The cage must not exceed 80 inches total in dimensions (ie: 20x40x20)
(or 78x1x1, for those thinner ferrets ;) )
 
I transported the kids in a chicken wire cage, newspaper in the bottom,
litter pan securely wired in, water bottle securely wired in, lots of
blankets.  I was told I would have to pay $50 per ferret, even though
they were in the same cage (this was over the phone prior to leaving on
the trip).  When I actually reached the Air Canada attendant, I was only
charged $50 total, because they were in only 1 kennel.  Your mileage may
vary.
 
I think a lot can be told about a person by watching how they react to a
caged ferret.  In the airport, some people just ignored the cage, some
smiled at the cute critters and watched from afar, some walked up and
took a closer look, and one man talked to me and thought they were cute,
and said he'd offer them part of his cookie but it probably wouldn't be
good for them. :)  Like Sprocket would have cared ("You're eating
SPAGHETTI? Mmmmmmm!" "You're eating Kraft Dinner? Gimme!" "You're eating?
Gimme!")  Ivanova would have stashed the cookie under the blankets for
later. :)
 
Also note that Air Canada only has pressurized, heated air cargo areas on
some of its planes. I took two DC-9s, which both had the areas. The
ferrets were transferred, no problems, I must compliment the airlines on
that.
 
Then my parents took care of the duo for a while.  My parents have a wire
haired terrier, Mindy. I wasn't too keen on her getting near the ferrets
at all (isn't she related to a RAT terrier?), but I knew she was a very
intelligent and trustworthy dog.  So, heavily supervised, we let her
sniff the ferrets, then watched them interact.  Suffice it to say that
eventually Sprocket was spending his free time poking his nose into
Mindy's ear ("Hey look! A tunnel!") while Mindy sighed and laid there.
Mindy would try to play with Sprocket (after Sprocket did his normal
flying leap from behind the couch to land against her, then dance around
her), but Mindy growls when she plays with people, so she growled at
Sprocket... and Sprocket was outta there! He knew a growl when he heard
one. So maybe the ferrets and the dog weren't best friends, but they got
along.  And now every person in my home town knows my ferrets. Someone
walked up to me in Saskatoon and said "Oh, you're Lorene... I've met your
ferrets!" :P
 
Now we're in a majorly ferretproofed 2-bedroom apartment, with plenty of
room to run ("Look, stairs!") and bounce and play... although Ivanova
found out the hard way that one does not ferret dance on stairs, no
matter how funny one thinks the big human is..." bounce bounce whoops roll
roll roll roll How did I get way down here?"
 
I also have a question. I went to the Pet's Pantry here in Saskatoon (a
place where people can bring their pets in and let them sample the treats
before they buy, really neat), and the clerk recommended this stuff
called VITEROL-X or something like that.  It looks like linatone, but
is more viscous.  I mix it with vegetable oil, and the ferrets seem to
like it, but they smack their lips a lot when licking it, I think I need
to thin it even more. Is this vitamin supplement acceptable? The clerk
told me that vets were recommending it now.
 
John, I'm really sorry to hear that Buddy has cataracts, but I'm sure
that with you he'll live a happy life anyway. :)
 
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[Posted in FML issue 1106]