>From:    "marie i. schatz" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: looking for experience
>I am hoping those of you with ferrets and cats can help me with your
>experience.  I am agonizing about getting a cat.
 
Hi Marie.  We have a cat and two ferrets.  Kitty was adopted from the humane
society about 12 years ago and is declawed.  One of the ferrets, Max, gets
along quite well with kitty.  Actually, I'd say it's more like they put up
with each other.  They'll play together, but it's pretty rare.  For the most
part, they go they're own separate ways.  If you look at our shelter's web
site (see address below) you can find one page that shows Max and Peanut
(kitty) laying together in the living room.
 
Punky Doodle, our other ferret, wants to kill all animals (loves people
though), including other ferrets.  Kitty stays far away from Punk and hisses
loudly if he sees Punk even heading in his direction.  We have had to detach
Punk from kitty's neck and various other body parts more than once.
 
I'd be someone hesitant to allow them together if Kitty had claws.  My wife,
lover of strays that she is, befriended a stray cat and after a week or so,
held up one of our ferrets to this cat and it reached out gently and
scratched Sid's eyeball pretty badly.  Of course this cat wasn't used to
living with ferrets, but it doesn't take much, even in play, for those claws
to come out a little bit.
 
I don't if any of this helps.  A lot depends on the personality of the
individual animal.
 
   Mike
 
* Michael F. Janke - [log in to unmask]
* Member, South Florida Ferret Club & Rescue
*
* SFFCR Home Page - http://www.bridge.net/~mjanke
[Posted in FML issue 1708]