Hi all!  Me & Fang have been here just over a year now.  Usually, after
reading all the various tales of naughty ferret tricks on here, I find him
a give him lots of thankful hugs and kisses for not terrorizing me!  Lately
though (you knew this was coming......)
 
we have some issues.  Our roommate has a cat, it's very small but it has
some very large mental problems.  It can't be picked up, walked past, talked
to, or breathed on without freaking out and running.  Fang, of course, wants
nothing more than to be it's best friend.  When they have accidentally got
loose together the kitty has always ran and hid, but when he's in his cage
or on our laps and the cat sees him, she seems interested, but wont get
close.  Fang did have another kitty where we used to live but she hated all
other animals and we never put them together, he was curious about her, but
not like this.  We've all been here for about 2 months and things are slowly
getting worse.  At night, the cat goes in it's owners room with the door
shut, and Fang runs the house with us.  Lately, even the great mysteries of
the dishwasher can't persuade him to leave that door alone.  He always
returns to that nose down, butt up, digger position trying desperately to
tunnel in.  You can imagine how our roomette feels about this at 2am.  I
haven't even mentioned the bare carpet spot that magically appeared!  (I'm
not worried about that though.  I am armed with carpet plug instructions
from the FML!) Bitter Apple, time out, no-no's, distracting games, treats...
Nothing works for long.  I might have a plan though, but I need your input
first.  Once at my Ferrets Anonymous meeting (Long Beach), we all went to a
members house and sprung our floor monkeys to run free.  They had two ferret
friendly cats and Fang went running straight to them, after sniffing them
for a minute or two, he walked away and never looked back.  So that's my
plan, let him & the kitty loose together and hope that cures his insatiable
need to see the kitty.  There are lots of places that he could escape to if
there was a problem but I'm still nervous.  I have read and tried (I think)
all the methods for introducing the two and this is where I am today... Can
anyone that has tried something like this e-mail me & tell me their stories,
bad or good?  Fang is very large (over 4 lbs.) and the kitty is very
small (about 8 lbs.), but I know that guarantees nothing and I don't want
any maiming, blinding or other carnage.  Please lend me a hand with this and
I promise my next post wont be so long!
 
Did anyone see the Martha Stewart show yesterday(7/1 @ 2 am in So. Cal)?
There was a man that has a show called Pet Potpourri(?), he had all kinds
of animals, birds, dogs, cats, rabbits and a ferret named Splash, all
running around together in a semi-heap for the whole show!  He said, on his
show, Splash gets more fan mail and gifts than any of his other pets!  He
gave some good accurate facts about ferrets and had a little discussion with
Martha about obsessive carpet digging and his "out of sight out of mind"
technique (cardboard and duct tape).  Splash then proceeded to hop on the
cardboard barrier and dig on that!
 
-Cynthia
You can reach me at
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Thanks!
[Posted in FML issue 2358]