I have been following TLE's move and exploits with the outdoor run.  I would
like to relate my experiences with "outdoor" ferrets.
 
I had to move in with my parents in Florida for 6 months, with my 3 fuzzies.
My parents' entire back yard is a screened-in patio (about 100 feet by 25
feet) with a cement deck.  In the cement deck several large "holes" were left
for planting flowers (each about 6 feet by 3 feet). These were all planted
with beautiful flowers and shrubs.  The ferrets had a ball playing in the
"yard" - They were always supervised because there also is a swimming pool in
this deck.  I did not have to worry about predatory birds, and the ferrets
ran all over playing in the shrubs, patio furniture, etc. I would sit for
hours and read while they ran around until they got hot and asked to go back
inside for air conditioning. I never had any problems with the screens
enclosing the porch - the ferrets did not try to climb or dig at them.  The
only screen that was a problem was the one going back into the house (Sweet
Pea would get hot and want to go inside, and slashed the screen with her
claws and jumped through into the house).
 
The problem was the flower beds. The ferrets loved to dig! They dug up lots
of flowers, much to my mother's chagrin. Then they started digging tunnels
around the roots of the shubbery. I was under the mistaken impression for
quite some time that these were shallow tunnels limited to the flower beds.
WRONG! After investigation, it turned out that they had tunnelled under the
foundation of the house!  These tunnels were at least ten feet long.  My
father sunk bricks into the edges of the flower beds to a depth of 12 inches
to block the tunnels.  Things seems OK for awhile, until I noticed that they
could enter one flower bed and come up in another!  They had just dug deeper
to get under the bricks.  We then discovered a tunnel traversing most of the
length of the patio -- there was nothing to stop them from digging out from
the porch and into the great outdoors by tunneling under the cement slab.
 
In a heroic move, my father completely dug up three flower beds to a depth of
3 feet, completely removed everything, and lined the beds (sides and floor)
with a cage of hardware wire screening.  Then he refilled the beds and
my mother painstakingly replanted all the greenery. The ferrets were quite
disgusted with our efforts, but it was effective.
 
So beware of unattended outdoor enclosures! My Sweet Pea could tunnel
effortlessly into any lawn, dirt pile, or ground cover.  And quickly, too, at
the rate of 1 foot per every five minutes on a good day.
 
Erika (and Sasha, Misty, and Lizzie)
[Posted in FML issue 1293]