Hi Jeffrey,
 
You didn't mention if your nighttime ferret was already caged or if she
was running around loose.  It seems pretty normal for some ferrets to
tend to weird hours, although most of them seem to get on a schedule
that matches when you're home and available to play.
 
Anyway, we've had good luck training our guys to sleep through the night
by putting them in a small kennel-cab when they get up and make noise in
the middle of the night.  For one very persistent guy, we had to put the
kennel-cab a couple of rooms away because he was big on rattling the bars,
but after a week of this consistent treatment (with occasional relapses
resulting in the same treatment), they've all become very civilized.
 
We never did train the cats to stop "staring" us awake 1/2 inch from our
faces just before the alarm went off, though...
 
Good Luck!
Dennis
[Posted in FML issue 1186]