I've been reading the discussion on "to cage or not to cage" with interest
and felt that I had to put my two cents worth in.
 
About three years ago, I got Rosie from a pet store.  Big mistake, it turned
out.  After much deliberation, I decided to let her run free in my place.  I
came home one day to a silent apartment and no ferret to be seen.  Although
I had (I thought) ferret-proofed the apartment, I she'd managed to disappear
without a trace.  I spent the next few weeks searching the house (old
victorian job in the "Annex", if you're ever in Toronto, check it out) from
top to bottom, including crawling through at least a foot of loose
insulation in the attic several times.
 
As it turns out, Rosie never left the room.  I had a tube big enough for her
to crawl through (long, stiff and dark--this is an important fact) and she
crawled in while I was gone and died.  Although I checked the tube, it's
physical characteristics prevented me from seeing her.  I even brought in a
cat and another ferret (Chloe, the one I have now as it turns out), but
couldn't find a trace.  I found her five weeks later when she started to,
well, hmmm, how can we put this delicately, decompose.
 
Since then, I've had a tremendous amount of guilt about this, although my
vet had warned me about a possible heart defect when I first got her (turns
out she was fixed too young).  When I spoke to him later, he gave me his
opinion that she may have crawled inside the tube, tried to turn or heard a
noise, became startled, panicked and died.  I don't know if this is what
happened for sure, but I do know that I will always regret leaving her
unsupervised.  Chloe now stays in her cage when I'm not there.  And when I'm
home, she's allowed out, but I find that when she's tired, she climbs back
into the cage and under blankie.
 
Having said this, I wanted to hear from people who have introduced a ferret
into an already ferret-occupied household.  Has anyone tried this where the
resident ferret is older and has been and only-fuzzy for most of her life?
Let me know, because I'm thinking of getting Chloe a friend and would like
to know about any problems others have had or things to look out for.
 
On a lighter note, someone came up to Chloe and I the other day and said "I
can't believe you have THAT for a pet" Now, this kind of talk always makes
me see red and having what my family call 'a good Irish I responded with
"Yeah, well, somebody MARRIED you!  Not very nice, but I'm truly getting
sick of some of the stupid comments I hear.  Chloe has as much right to
existance I do.
 
Anyway, it shut her up.
 
Has anyone else dealt with these types of stupid comments?  What did you
do?  I generally find people really nice, but every now and then, you
meet someone who just can't refrain from saying something inane.
 
Hope you're all well out there.
 
Judith and Chloe
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[Posted in FML issue 1601]