Last week it was nice and warm here (it's back to 30 degrees F.  now) and I
took the ferrets outside to enjoy the great outdoors.  Well, as most of you
know, ferrets are children-magnets.  Within 5 minutes, I had five children
all wanting to pet and hold these little guys.  They were great; both the
ferrets & the children!  One little girl (2-3 years old) came over with her
dad from across the street.  She was scared of the neighbors dog who was
barking but loved the ferrets.  The next day I saw her mom and she said, "My
little girl really loves your pets.  She calls them 'little dogs'." :-)
 
Then, just this past Sunday, we had friends over who have a nine month old
boy.  He had never seen the ferrets before but 2 cats, 2 newts and a
cockatiel live at his house so he is familiar with animals.  First he just
looked at them while they were in the cage.  I took Babe, the youngest and
softest ferret out and he petted her back.  Then my friend really surprised
me.  She asked, "Can you let them all run around the room?" So there we
were: four adults, three ferrets, two cats (they wouldn't miss this), one
caged parakeet and one nine-month old baby loose in one room of our house!
The worst the ferrets did is try to get down my friend's husband's pants
when he was sitting down!  Babe even came up to Justin (the boy) and licked
his hand which he seemed to like.  I was so pleased.  Ferrets and children
can mix.  Of course, this encounter was heavily supervised but still a ton
of fun.
 
Ellen [log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 1898]