well, after almost 9 months of living in a no-pets household, we are once
again in a pet friendly environment (our own apartment) and have adopted a
new slinky.  he's a 10 week old chocolate, beautiful, very playful and
companionable (he does very little exploring on his own, but rather follows
us and explores whatever is nearby) that we have named Gwydeon.  he does
seem to like rough- housing a bit much, and is nippy (he has broken the skin
on my palm once, and we've only had him two days), but seems to respond to a
loud "NO!" when he tries to close his jaws too hard (i was rapping him on
the nose also, but if he responds to voice only, that should rarely be
necessary).
 
i hope that the roughhousing won't be quite so intense when he's full-grown;
am i being realistic?  as it is, we shan't be letting strangers play with
him until the biting habit is broken.  since we got him from a shelter, i
wonder if that's part of the reason the previous owners didn't keep him (he
was with two different households before the shelter took him in at 7 weeks
old!) hmm, his nickname at the shelter was "psycho"...
 
 
Question: does anyone know of a good, _inexpensive_ source of ferret houses/
cages?  Gwydeon's been sleeping in a cat carrier for the past few days, but
he will need something larger for a long-term basis, especially if when we
get our next adoptee (we expect to hold steady at two, for at least as long
as we're in this apartment :).  we live in maryland, inside the d.c.
beltway, so something we can go pick up ourselves would be ideal...
 
-donald, lela, and gwydeon
[Posted in FML issue 1238]