Since I spend a lot of my time chasing down and making interesting ferret
toys suggested by other FMLers, I didn't expect to be making my own
contribution to the toy list, but Smokey just demonstrated a new toy I had
right here in my house and didn't know it.  I had a renter who recently
cleaned out most of my furniture (stupid, long story) and as a result my
living room is pretty much empty.  This is a major ferret bonus -- more
room to play.  Also, any bags or boxes that come into the house simply get
dumped on the living room floor these days.  (One of the favorites is an
appliance-sized box on its side that's filled with the tubes that come
inside newsprint rolls, but that's not what I came to tell you about.)
 
Anyway, I remember reading here about ferrets who like to play "truck".
You roll them on their backs and drive them around the floor like trucks,
or get a shoebox and stick them in it and drive that around.  Well, this
afternoon I heard a noise in the living room, and there was a huge
upsidedown box driving around all on its own!  I'd brought home one of
those boxes that apples are shipped in and had left it closed on the floor.
The ferts quickly poked a hole in the top and have been going in and out
for days (a few crinkly sacks inside made it especially desirable), but
today I opened the box and left the top (opening side down) on the floor.
Along comes Smokey, the Tunnel Ferret, and he tunneled under the box lid
and drove it around bumping into things until he figured I'd had enough
amusement for a while.  Whatever will they think of next?
 
RE pet sitters: I found a great one.  She's a major cat person, vet tech,
show judge, licensed and bonded, and here in economically-depressed Montana
charged me a reasonable $15/day to come over and spend an hour or so
actively playing with the monsters.  I tell you this because she had NO
ferret experience before meeting mine, yet I'm convinced I couldn't do any
better.  Why?  She's a professional.  She truly loves animals.  She knows
how important rapid vet intervention can be, and knows who to call (she
even knows how to reach the only ferret vet in town after hours, which
isn't a privilege I've been granted yet).  And I did a few key things to
make sure all went well:
 
1. Tried her out on a weekend first, so we'd both know if it wasn't going
to work before I went on a longer absence.  (It worked great, except that
her husband is now mad at me because she wants ferrets of her own :-)
 
2. Gave her reading material, specifically Deborah Jeans' book.  (She read
it so carefully and thoroughly she took away a number of the weasels'
favorite toys because DJ warned they might not be safe.  Example: they used
to have an empty Science Diet bag to play in, which is lined in cellophane
and thus nice and crinkly, but she meticulously removed every single bit of
cellophane in case they might decide to ingest some.)
 
3. (This is important!) Provided a fallback.  I gave her the name and
number of an experienced local ferret person, with that person's
permission, in case she ran into something she couldn't handle, or just
plain couldn't handle ferrets.  And on top of that I gave her contact
info for some major national ferret types in case something really weird
happened.
 
Everything went great.  I was gone for two weeks.  For my $15 I got cute
little daily reports on everyones' doings via email.  I contributed to the
local economy.  The ferrets got a truly dedicated playmate in my absence, a
reasonable trade for their normal 10-20 hrs/day of free roaming time.  I
think a big part of this was that I hired someone who had her business
reputation on the line.  After the renter experience (that long, stupid
story again), I decided not to have anyone in my house in my absence that I
couldn't totally trust.  In the past, I used to just try to find a student
to stay here for free.  This new approach was a big expense but, as we are
all constantly reminding each other, ferrets sooner or later become a major
line item in the household budget, and the sooner we come to terms with
that the better.  Of course, your mileage may vary....
 
Have I hit the line limit yet?  I just wanted to say that *none* of my five
ferrets found Cheweasels to be worth the plastic bag they came in (which is
a good thing, because the renter threw those out too).  Maybe it's because
they're just not chewers.  Who knows?
 
-- Kim and the quirky quints
 
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kim Hastings     University of Montana     Division of Biological Sciences
[log in to unmask] (DG: internet(b)selway.umt.edu(b)hastings@ATT:X400)
[Posted in FML issue 2629]